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AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF 


OLIVER  OTIS  HOWARD 


MAJOR  GENERAL  UNITED  STATES  ARMY 


REMP_r 


General  Howard. 

(From  a  photograph  taken  in  1904.', 


Autobiography 

of 

OLIVER  OTIS  HOWARD 

MAJOR  GENERAL  UNITED  STATES  ARMY 


VOLUME  TWO 


New  York 

THE  BAKER  &  TAYLOR  COMPANY 

1907 


Copyright,  1907,  by 
THE  BAKER  &  TAYLOR  COMPANY 


THE  TROW  PRESS,  NEW  YORK 


^7  3, 7?J 
H 

v.  a 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

VOLUME  TWO 

9 

PART  II 

THE  CIVIL  WAR —Continued 

Lieutenant  to  Major  General ,  and  in  Command  of  an 

Independent  Army 

Chapter  XXXV.  Battle  of  Atlanta  .... 

Chapter  XXXVI.  Battle  of  Ezra  Church  . 

Chapter  XXXVII.  Battle  of  Jonesboro 

Chapter  XXXVIII.  Battle  of  Lovejoy’s  Station 
and  Capture  of  Atlanta . 

Chapter  XXXIX.  General  Hood’s  Northward 
March — Sherman  in  Pursuit — Battle  of  Alla- 

TOONA  ........... 

Chapter  XL.  Return  to  Atlanta — The  March  to 
the  Sea — Battle  of  Gris  wold  ville,  Ga.  . 

Chapter  XLI.  The  March  to  the  Sea — Capture  of 
Fort  McAllister  and  Savannah . 

Chapter  XLII.  March  through  the  Carolinas — 
Savannah,  Ga.,  to  Columbia,  S.  C . 

Chapter  XLIII.  March  through  the  Carolinas — 
The  Taking  of  Columbia . 


PAGE 

3 

16 

27 

41 

52 

68 

86 

101 

117 


v 


Table  of  Contents 

Chapter  XLIV.  Skirmishing  at  Cheraw  and  Fay¬ 
etteville  and  the  Battle  of  Averysboro 

Chapter  XLV.  March  through  the  Carolinas — The 
Battle  of  Bentonville — Johnston's  Surrender  . 


PART  III 

RECONSTRUCTION 

Commissioner  of  the  Freedmen’ s  Bureau — Founding 

Howard  University 

Chapter  XLVI.  Negro  Conditions  During  the  Civil 
War . 

Chapter  XLVII.  Freedmen's  Aid  Societies  and  an 
Act  of  Congress  Creating  a  Bureau  of  Refu¬ 
gees,  Freedmen  and  Abandoned  Lands  . 

Chapter  XLVIII.  Organization  of  the  Freedmen's 
Bureau  and  My  Principles  of  Action 

Chapter  XLIX.  The  Abandoned  Lands 

Chapter  L.  Courts  for  Freedmen — Medical  Care 
and  Provision  for  Orphans . 

Chapter  LI.  The  Early  Finances — Schools  Started 

Chapter  L1I.  President  Johnson's  Reconstruction 
and  Further  Bureau  Legislation  for  1866  . 

Chapter  LIII.  The  Bureau  Work  in  1866 — Pres¬ 
ident  Johnson's  First  Opposition  . 

Chapter  LIV.  Public  Addresses  Concerning  the 
Freedmen  in  1866,  Advocating  Education 

Chapter  LV.  First  Appropriation  by  Congress  for 
the  Bureau — The  Reconstruction  Act,  March  2, 
1867 — Increase  of  Educational  Work 


PAGE 

134 

143 


163 

194 

206 

229 

245 

263 

277 

293 

309 

331 


vi 


Table  of  Contents 

PAGK 

Chapter  LVI.  Famine  Reliefs — Paying  Soldiers* 
Bounties,  and  Summary  of  Work  Accomplished,  350 

Chapter  LVII.  The  Ku-Klux  Klan  ....  374 

Chapter  LVIII.  Beginning  of  Howard  University  390 

Chapter  LIX.  Institutions  of  the  Higher  Grade — 

The  Barry  Farm . 402 

Chapter  LX.  Opposition  to  Bureau  and  Recon¬ 
struction  Work  Became  Personal — The  Congre¬ 
gational  Church  of  Washington  ....  423 

Chapter  LXI.  Court  of  Inquiry — President  of 
Howard  University . 445 


PART  IV 

COMMANDING  DEPARTMENTS,  ETC. 

Military  Departments — Indian  Campaigns — Literary  Work 
— Founding  Lincoln  Memorial  University 

Chapter  LXII.  Life  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  1866  to 
1874 — Assigned  to  Duty  in  Regular  Army  as  Com¬ 
mander,  Department  of  the  Columbia  .  .  .  459 

Chapter  LXIIL  In  the  Northwest,  among  the  In¬ 
dians — Trip  to  Alaska — Life  in  Portland,  Ore. — 

1874  to  1881  468 

Chapter  LXIV.  Superintendent  of  the  United 
States  Military  Academy — Commanding  Depart¬ 
ment  of  the  Platte,  Omaha,  Neb . 485 

Chapter  LXV.  In  Europe,  Egypt,  and  Constanti¬ 
nople  . 494 

Chapter  LXVI.  Italy  and  Switzerland  .  .  .513 


Vll 


Table  of  Contents 

PAGE 

Chapter  LXVII.  France  and  Germany — Convention 
of  Young  Men’s  Christian  Association,  Berlin, 

1884  ...........  525 

Chapter  LX VI II.  French  Army  Maneuvers,  1884 — 
Promotion  to  Major  General,  United  States 
Army,  San  Francisco,  1886-88  .  539 

Chapter  LXIX.  Transferred  to  New  York  City  .  547 

Chapter  LXX.  D.  L.  Moody  on  Board  the  SPREE 
— Spanish  War,  1898 — Lincoln  Memorial  Univer¬ 


sity — Conclusion . 558 

Appendix . 580 

Index . 589 


vm 


i 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

VOLUME  TWO 

FACING 

PAGE 

General  Howard  ......  Frontispiece 

From  a  photograph  taken  in  1905. 

Mrs.  Eliza  Otis  Gilmore,  Mother  of  General  How¬ 
ard,  and  Granddaughter . 176 

Mrs.  0.  O.  Howard  .  206 

George  W.  Balloch,  Brevet  Brigadier  General  and 
Chief  Disbursing  Officer  Freedman’s  Bureau  .  216 

General  Howard  as  Commissioner  of  the  Freedman’s 
Bureau,  1866-73  216 

General  Eliphalet  Whittlesey,  Brevet  Brigadier 
General  and  Assistant  Commissioner  Freedman’s 
Bureau . 216 

General  Howard,  Superintendent  United  States 
Military  Academy,  and  Aids-de-Camp  at  West 
Point,  N.  Y.,  1881  486 

Major  General  Howard,  Commanding  Department  of 
the  East,  1888  . .  .  .  550 

General  Howard’s  Home,  Burlington,  Vt.  .  .  .  566 

Major  General  Howard,  1906  .  574 

From  a  portrait  by  Mrs.  K.  Rogers  Nowell. 

ix 


PART  II— THE  CIVIL  WAR —Continued 


LIEUTENANT  TO  MAJOR  GENERAL,  AND  IN 
COMMAND  OF  AN  INDEPENDENT  ARMY 


AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF 


OLIVER  OTIS  HOWARD 


MAJOR  GENERAL  UNITED  STATES  ARMY 


CHAPTER  XXXV 

BATTLE  OF  ATLANTA 

T  T  was  observed  at  the  dawn  of  July  21,  1864,  that 
the  strong  Confederate  outworks  in  my  front  had 
been  abandoned ;  and  by  pushing  forward  in  the  usual 
way  we  at  last  came  upon  the  principal  defenses  of 
the  city  of  Atlanta.  They  were  made  up  of  small  forts 
or  redoubts,  fitted  for  pieces  of  artillery,  which 
crowned  the  hilly  prominences  that  faced  in  all 
directions. 

Atlanta  then  looked  to  us  like  a  hill  city  defended 
by  encircling  well-fortified  hills.  Curtains,  more  or 
less  regular,  ran  along  connecting  hill  fort  to  hill  fort. 
All  the  redoubts,  or  forts,  and  the  curtains  were  well 
made  under  the  direction  of  an  excellent  engineer. 
The  slashings,  abatis,  chevaux  de  frise ,  fascines,  ga¬ 
bions,  and  sand  bags  were  all  there  and  in  use.  How 
could  we  run  over  those  things  when  they  had  plenty 
of  cannon,  mortars,  and  rifles  behind  them? 

Sherman  brought  the  troops  forward,  advancing 
our  lines  to  these  obstructions,  overlapping  all  in- 
trenchments  on  our  left.  McPherson’s  army  had  two 

3 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

corps  in  line,  Logan’s — facing  Atlanta,  and  Blair’s — 
carrying  on  liis  line  bending  back  to  its  termination. 
Dodge’s  (Sixteenth  Corps)  was  pretty  well  scattered; 
at  first  Sweeny’s  division,  the  Second  (of  Dodge),  was 
near  Logan’s  right.  Fuller,  commanding  the  Fourth 
division,  only  one  brigade  being  present  with  General 
Dodge’s  headquarters,  was  encamped  well  back  in 
rear  of  the  center  of  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee — 
Sprague’s  brigade  was  guarding  trains  ten  miles  to 
the  rear  at  Decatur,  while  the  remaining  brigade  of 
the  fourth  division,  H.  J.  McDowell  commanding,  was 
held  as  a  reserve  close  in  rear  of  Blair’s  corps. 
From  Dodge’s  headquarters  to  Blair’s  left  flank  in  a 
straight  line  was  just  about  one  mile. 

Schofield’s  army  bending  westward  was  next  to 
McPherson’s,  and  Thomas’s,  beyond  Schofield  in  a 
semicircular  formation,  embraced  the  Atlanta  forts 
clear  on  to  Sherman’s  extreme  right. 

As  on  his  arrival  Fuller  was  directed  to  support 
Blair,  his  force  was  depleted  still  more  by  having  to 
send  away,  at  Blair’s  request,  pioneers  and  other  de¬ 
tachments,  but  up  to  12  m.  Fuller  was  in  that  central 
rear  position  with  one  brigade,  his  trains,  and  Laird’s 
Fourteenth  Ohio  Battery. 

About  eight  o’clock  the  morning  of  July  22d  Mc¬ 
Pherson  told  Dodge  to  send  off  his  second  division, 
Sweeny’s,  from  the  right  of  Logan  to  the  left  of  the 
general  line.  The  engineers  were  locating  the  left 
of  the  Seventeenth  Corps,  and,  not  being  quite  ready, 
Sweeny’s  division  was  halted  en  route  along  a  road 
that  ran  nearly  at  right  angles  to  Blair’s  position. 
Sweeny’s  head  of  column  came  near  to  Fuller’s  posi¬ 
tion.  Dodge  himself  had  been  reconnoitering  to  find 
where  Blair’s  left  flank  would  finally  rest. 

4 


Battle  of  Atlanta 


Blair  had  two  divisions — Leggett  commanding  one 
and  Giles  A.  Smith  the  other.  The  occupation  of  Leg¬ 
gett’s  Hill  brought  one  division  so  near  to  Logan’s 
corps  on  its  right,  that  Blair  sent  Giles  A.  Smith  with 
his  division  to  guard  Leggett’s  left  and  rear,  station¬ 
ing  his  men  along  the  line  of  the  McDonough  road, 
with  the  left  flank  refused  toward  the  east. 

Blair  knew  that  there  was  an  interval  of  a  mile, 
nearly  all  woods,  between  him  and  Dodge,  except  that 
McPherson  at  the  last  moment  had  sent  Wangelin’s 
small  brigade  to  watch  that  space.  Sweeny  had  only 
halted  till  just  the  points  he  was  to  occupy  should  be 
determined.  That  halt  and  detention  were  indeed 
providential. 

Just  before  noon  McPherson  and  his  staff  were 
with  Sherman  at  the  “  Howard  House.”  This  house 
on  some  maps  is  called  “  Hart  House.”  It  was  a 
large,  square,  white  structure  near  the  junction  of 
Logan  and  Schofield. 

Sherman  has  recorded  even  the  subjects  of  conver¬ 
sation  at  this  interview.  As  they  talked  they  heard 
some  skirmish  firing  near  them  toward  Atlanta;  sud¬ 
denly  there  was  the  duller  sound  of  distant  cannon 
off  toward  Decatur ;  what  could  that  mean  ?  Sherman 
took  out  his  pocket  compass  to  test  the  direction. 
The  increasing  sound  was  too  far  to  the  left  rear  to 
be  accounted  for  by  any  known  facts. 

So  McPherson,  staff,  and  orderlies  mounted  and 
rode  off  to  join  Dodge  where  he  and  Fuller  were 
together. 

At  12  m.  Dodge  was  lunching  with  Fuller.  There 
were  a  few  open  farms  in  view,  but  the  principal  en¬ 
vironment  covering  that  uneven  region  was  woodland. 
This  these  officers  saw  as  they  sat  down  to  their  fru- 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

gal  meal,  not  a  little  anxious  notwithstanding  the  un¬ 
usual  calm.  Surely,  this  isolated  position  behind  the 
brave  Army  of  the  Tennessee,  with  the  able  McPher¬ 
son  in  command,  was  a  safer  one  than  any  Dodge  had 
held  for  weeks  past — when  they  suddenly  heard  this 
same  firing. 

General  Blair  had  been  with  McPherson  that  morn¬ 
ing,  just  before  McPherson  started  to  see  Sherman. 
Blair  had  then  gone  directly  to  his  own  headquarters 
not  far  away,  when  about  12  m.  he  heard  that  there 
had  been  an  attack  upon  his  hospitals,  and  that  Colo¬ 
nel  Alexander  of  his  staff  had  taken  a  small  company 
of  mounted  infantry  and  had  gone  there  to  defend 
them. 

Sweeny  sent  men  at  once  to  reconnoiter  between 
him  and  the  Seventeenth  Corps.  The  men  sent  ran 
across  some  Confederates  advancing  in  the  woods. 

Dodge,  on  Sweeny’s  report,  immediately  compre¬ 
hended  the  situation,  and  ordered  Sweeny  to  face  his 
lines  east  and  south;  he  ordered  Fuller  to  send  a  regi¬ 
ment  to  cover  Sweeny’s  right  flank.  Sweeny  was  just 
ready  when  he  was  surprised  to  see  Confederates 
emerge  from  the  timber.  The  two  batteries  were  part 
of  Sweeny’s  fighting  line,  and  every  soldier’s  rifle  was 
loaded. 

Fuller,  without  waiting  for  orders,  had,  instead 
of  a  regiment,  developed  his  whole  force  to  the  left 
of  Sweeny  as  he  faced  rearward.  Thus  Dodge  with 
two  divisions  became  hotly  engaged. 

The  Confederates  were  terribly  shaken  at  the  first 
fire ;  but  they  persevered.  Their  very  momentum 
carried  them  beyond  Dodge’s  command,  and  exposed 
their  lines  to  a  raking  fire  of  artillery,  to  which  two 
or  three  regiments  of  riflemen  sent  by  Dodge,  getting 

6 


Battle  of  Atlanta 


a  cross  fire,  added  the  effect  of  their  rifles.  The  reason 
for  this  unexpected  Confederate  approach  is  as  fol¬ 
lows  : 

As  soon  as  it  was  dark  enough  to  get  away  from 
Thomas’s  front  without  endangering  his  columns  from 
our  artillery,  Hood  had  caused  his  forces  to  march 
back  through  the  city  and  pass  on  southward  on  the 
west  side  of  Intrenchment  Creek,  and  cross  it  far  be¬ 
low  the  McDonough  road  near  Cobb’s  Mill.  Hardee 
then  set  out  with  three  divisions,  but  Cleburne,  who 
had  been  all  day  withstanding  Leggett  and  Giles  A. 
Smith,  fell  into  his  column;  they  moved  on  all  night. 
Hardee’s  head  of  column,  continuing  the  circuit  far 
enough  from  Blair  to  escape  attention,  made  northing 
and  easting  enough  to  be  within  five  miles  of  Decatur 
by  sunrise. 

Fifteen  miles  by  country  roads  or  paths,  or  no 
roads  at  all,  in  a  dark  night,  necessarily  straggled  out 
the  columns  of  fours.  It  took  considerable  time  to 
close  up  and  get  in  order.  The  pickets  toward  Decatur 
found  Sprague’s  brigade  on  the  alert  near  that  little 
town.  Hardee  did  not  know  that  our  Garrard  was 
gone,  and  before  advancing,  his  right  and  rear  must 
be  properly  cleared  by  cavalry,  so  he  waited  a  while 
for  Wheeler.  A  night  march  doubly  fatigues  all 
troops.  Hardee  very  properly  rested  and  refreshed 
his  men.  His  deployed  front,  with  its  left  tangent  to 
the  McDonough  road,  faced  westerly.  It  covered  the 
flank  and  rear  of  McPherson’s  entire  force. 

Hardee  now  deliberately  began  his  march  while 
Hood  in  front  of  Atlanta  was  holding  the  forts  and 
curtains  opposite  Thomas  and  Schofield,  freeing  Cheat¬ 
ham’s  corps  that  it  might  help  Hardee  when  the 
proper  moment  should  arrive.  The  blades  of  the 

7 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

shears  would  close  and  crush  poor  McPherson’s  en¬ 
tire  command.  The  rivet  of  the  blades  would  be  at 
Leggett’s  Hill. 

Hardee  faced  a  forest;  he  entered  it  where  gener¬ 
ally  no  one  could  see  twenty  paces  before  him  on  ac¬ 
count  of  the  thickets  and  uneven  ground.  On  he  came 
for  over  two  miles.  Hardee’s  advance  encountered 
some  of  McPherson’s  outmost  pickets — came  in  sight 
of  our  Colonel  Alexander’s  brave  mounted  escort  near 
Blair’s  hospital  and  met  a  regiment  protecting  the 
hospital.  This  caused  the  first  firing  heard. 

After  the  briefest  interview  with  Dodge,  sending 
his  officers  off  with  orders,  McPherson,  with  a  single 
orderly,  just  then  thinking  that  the  main  attack  would 
be  upon  Blair’s  left,  hurried  away  down  the  road  that 
led  that  way.  He  was  passing  through  the  yet  un¬ 
occupied  interval  when  the  Confederate  advance  of 
Cleburne’s  division  came  upon  him.  He  lifted  his 
hand  as  if  to  salute,  and  then  turned  to  ride  away, 
when,  under  a  hostile  volley,  he  was  shot  and  fell  from 
his  horse.  His  orderly  was  wounded,  and  became  a 
prisoner.  McPherson  had  with  him  an  important 
order  from  Sherman,  which  first  came  into  the  hands 
of  a  Confederate  soldier;  but  before  long,  as  Fuller 
and  Wangelin  cleared  that  ground,  the  soldier  was 
captured,  with  all  the  party  that  had  taken  to  them¬ 
selves  McPherson’s  immediate  belongings ;  and  the  re¬ 
mains  of  the  much-beloved  commander  were  very  soon 
secured  and  brought  in  to  Sherman  by  Colonel  Strong, 
his  inspector  general. 

General  Blair  himself  was  not  far  from  Mc¬ 
Pherson.  He  said :  “  I  saw  him  enter  the  woods  and 
heard  the  volley  which  probably  killed  him.”  At  once 
Blair  notified  Logan  that  McPherson  was  either  slain 

8 


Battle  of  Atlanta 


or  a  prisoner,  and  that  Logan  was  the  senior  to  com¬ 
mand.  The  instant  that  Sherman  heard  of  McPher¬ 
son’s  fall  he  sent  an  order  to  Logan  to  assume  com¬ 
mand,  and  gave  him  stimulating  and  strengthening 
words. 

But  a  little  later  Maney’s  Confederate  division 
came  against  Giles  A.  Smith’s  flank  and  rear.  Our 
pickets  were  displaced,  our  skirmishers  driven  in. 
The  Confederates  were  following  them  in  quick  time, 
and  their  artillery  so  posted  on  a  neighboring  and  very 
convenient  ridge  and  so  served  as  to  add  death  and 
terror  to  the  terrific  assaults. 

As  his  left  was  enveloped,  Smith  brought  Hall’s 
brigade,  helped  by  Potts’s,  to  better  shelter,  but  lost 
250  men  and  two  field  guns  captured  at  the  extreme 
point.  It  was  hard  maneuvering  in  such  a  storm! 

Now  over  the  south  and  east  of  these  trenches, 
made  to  face  the  other  way,  the  soldiers  were  ar¬ 
ranged.  They  thus  got  some  protection.  They  fired 
low,  and  as  fast  as  they  could;  the  enemy’s  ranks 
melted  away,  till  scores  were  made  to  rush  back  to  the 
woods.  This  went  on  till  their  fire  was  partially 
silenced. 

General  Smith  sent  out  at  once  after  the  Confed¬ 
erates  a  strong  skirmish  line.  It  could  now  hold  them 
back  for  a  while.  But  there  was  hardly  time  to  turn 
around.  The  attack  swept  in  from  the  opposite  quar¬ 
ter.  Behind  the  main  line  of  trenches,  and  also  across 
the  refused  part,  Hall’s  brigade  was  formed  to  face 
the  foe,  partly  covered.  Potts’s  brave  men  made  a  sec¬ 
ond  line  behind  Hall’s,  without  cover,  and  were  ready 
to  protect  his  left  flank  or  to  support  him  directly.  I 
have  never  known  better  conduct  in  battle. 

Again  the  Confederates  were  repulsed  with  heavy 

9 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

loss  or  flew  to  the  trees  for  shelter  against  the  un¬ 
ceasing  rifle  shots.  Again,  within  five  minutes,  the 
Confederates  from  the  rear,  the  first  repelled,  ani¬ 
mated  by  their  officers,  came  bounding  on.  Over  the 
works  again  every  unwounded  Union  soldier  leaped, 
and,  turning,  fought  that  way. 

The  enemy  having  the  cover  of  the  woods  could 
in  many  places  approach  within  fifteen  or  twenty 
yards  of  our  works  without  discovery.  Regimental 
commanders,  with  their  colors,  and  such  men  as  could 
follow  them,  would  not  infrequently  occupy  one  side 
of  the  works  and  our  men  the  other.  Many  individ¬ 
ual  acts  of  heroism  here  occurred.  The  flags  of  two 
opposing  regiments  met  us  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
same  works,  and  were  flaunted  by  their  respective 
bearers  in  each  other’s  faces.  Men  were  bayoneted 
across  the  works,  and  officers  with  their  swords  fought 
hand  to  hand  with  men  with  bayonets.  Colonel  Bel¬ 
knap  of  the  Fifteenth  Ohio  took  prisoner  Colonel 
Lampley  of  the  Forty-fifth  Alabama  by  pulling  him 
over  the  works  by  his  coat  collar,  being  several  times 
fired  at  by  men  at  his  side.  The  colors  of  his  regi¬ 
ment  were  taken  at  the  same  time.  The  enemy’s  loss 
in  this  attack  was  very  severe. 

By  dark  the  enemy  here  had  retired,  except  along 
the  line  of  the  works,  which  position  some  of  them  held 
until  nearly  daylight  the  next  morning,  thus  being 
able  to  get  off  their  wounded,  but  leaving  the  ground 
literally  strewn  with  their  slain. 

There  went  on  a  small  body  of  Confederates,  who 
found  little  to  oppose  them  as  they  advanced  between 
Scylla  and  Charybdis  westward — not  being  detained 
by  Giles  A.  Smith’s  brigade  on  their  left,  or  by  Wan- 
gelin  or  Martin  more  to  their  right — not  enough,  how- 

10 


Battle  of  Atlanta 


ever,  to  make  a  half  mile  of  unbroken  frontage,  all 
well  screened  by  the  dense  woods  through  which  they 
were  passing,  till  they  came  to  the  foot  of  Leggett’s 
Hill,  where  Gresham  had  been  wounded,  and  up  which 
the  gallant  Force  had  successfully  led  his  brigade 
against  great  odds  the  day  before. 

Hood,  seeing  Hardee’s  soldiers  emerge  from  the  tim¬ 
ber  and  ascend  the  hill,  triumphantly  said :  “  Cheatham, 
push  out  your  divisions  and  Sherman  is  beaten !  ” 
But,  no,  our  men  on  the  hill  sprang  over  to  the  reverse 
side  of  the  parapet,  and  quickly  by  artillery  and  infan¬ 
try  firing,  coolly  directed,  checked  that  hopeful  ad¬ 
vance  of  Hardee. 

A  flanking  fire  from  the  Fifteenth  Corps  position, 
with  plenty  of  cannon  and  rifle  volleys,  helped  Leg¬ 
gett  break  this  bold  effort  and  send  the  venturesome 
Confederates  immediately  and  rapidly  back,  to  find 
the  way  of  retreat  more  and  more  difficult. 

In  this  emeute  General  Force,  while  trying  to  aid 
a  wounded  officer  of  his  staff,  received  a  bullet  wound 
through  his  face  and  head  that  was  terribly  severe, 
but  providentially  his  life  was  spared  and  he  recov¬ 
ered. 

Cheatham’s  fine  corps  of  veterans,  all  in  order  and 
well  rested,  had  already  broken  forward  from  the  At¬ 
lanta  front.  Leggett’s  soldiers  had  had  hardly  time 
to  breathe  after  their  rapid  and  successful  firing 
against  that  rear  attack,  when  new  enemies  were  scal¬ 
ing  their  Bald  Hill  from  the  Atlanta  side. 

It  scarcely  required  orders  to  bring  every  soldier 
behind  his  lines  of  intrenchment.  Early  in  the  action 
many  of  Leggett’s  regiments  had  hastened  to  Giles  A. 
Smith’s  aid  when  he  was  in  sore  need,  and  now  Blair 
was  able  to  get  for  Leggett  all  the  prompt  reenforce- 

11 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

ment  lie  required,  so  that  by  an  obstinate  resistance, 
somewhat  prolonged,  Cheatham’s  attacks  on  that 
“  rivet  ”  point  had  to  fail. 

Meanwhile  the  two  left  divisions  of  Cheatham 
breasted  the  whole  front  of  the  Fifteenth  Corps,  now 
commanded  by  Morgan  L.  Smith,  and  reached  Has- 
call’s  division,  of  the  Twenty-third.  An  outwork  near 
the  railroad  on  our  front,  held  by  two  regiments  and 
a  section  of  an  Illinois  battery,  as  soon  as  outflanked, 
was  given  up.  This  demibrigade  regained  the  main 
line  near  a  cut  in  the  railroad  in  good  time,  but  the 
Confederates  took  the  advantage  afforded  by  the  cut 
and  by  a  building  that  masked  their  design.  These 
obstacles  wondrously  helped  their  sharpshooters  to 
hold  their  ground  in  that  vicinage  after  Lightburn’s 
division  had  bravely  withstood  the  first  assault. 

The  Confederate  brigade  of  Manigault  behind  that 
troublesome  building  was  compactly  formed  for  at¬ 
tack;  Colonel  W.  S.  Jones  was  commanding  the  Union 
brigade  in  his  front.  Jones’s  men  were  occupied  by 
the  shooters  from  that  building  and  elsewhere  and 
blinded  by  the  thick  smoke  of  the  artillery. 

Like  the  sudden  break  of  a  dam,  when  the  rushing 
water  carries  all  before  it,  so  that  close-formed  and 
waiting  Confederate  brigade  left  its  cover  and  rushed 
down  the  railway  cut  and  not  only  displaced  Jones’s 
front,  but  carried  away  the  supporting  lines  and  seized 
two  of  our  batteries.  It  was  the  first  bona  fide  break 
in  Logan’s  front,  and  it  afforded  Cheatham  a  tem¬ 
porary  triumph.  During  that  exciting,  noisy,  tumul¬ 
tuous  and  eventful  afternoon  my  own  part  was  easy. 
I  was  constantly  reminded  to  keep  the  Confederate 
Stewart  or  G.  W.  Smith  from  leaving  my  front.  We 
did  that.  I  was  also  to  be  carefully  prepared  to  re- 

12 


Battle  of  Atlanta 


enforce  Logan  should  he  require  any  assistance.  My 
Fourth  Corps  men  were  ready  for  that  also. 

As  the  battle  came  nearer,  being  naturally  anxious, 
and  desirous  to  be  very  prompt  when  Sherman  should 
say  the  word,  I  took  a  few  officers  with  me,  and  went 
over  some  hundred  yards  to  Schofield’s  front.  He 
had  before  this  sent  out  one  brigade  to  Decatur  to 
help  Sprague  defend  the  trains,  and  Cox  with  two 
others  over  to  be  near  to  Dodge.  Schofield  and  Sher¬ 
man,  with  a  few  officers  and  orderlies,  were  mounted 
when  I  arrived,  and  standing  near  the  Howard  House 
then  on  the  prolongation  of  Logan’s  line  of  battle. 
The  fearful  break  of  Logan’s  right  front  had  been 
made. 

Our  troops  seemed  to  have  swung  around  so  as  to 
be  at  right  angles  with  their  proper  line  of  battle. 
Captain  DeGress,  who  had  just  lost  his  Parrott  guns, 
was  on  the  ground,  near  Sherman’s  stirrup.  He  was 
apparently  much  chagrined  at  his  loss  and  eager  to 
have  them  recovered  before  his  enterprising  foes  could 
carry  them  off  to  Atlanta.  This  was  the  group.  I 
had  never  till  then  seen  Sherman  with  such  a  look  on 
his  face.  His  eyes  flashed.  He  did  not  speak.  He 
only  watched  the  front.  There  appeared  not  only  in 
his  face,  but  in  his  whole  pose,  a  concentrated  fierce¬ 
ness.  Schofield  had  located  several  batteries  in  an 
excellent  position  to  pour  spherical  case  and  canister 
shot  into  the  broken  interval.  All  this  was  being  care¬ 
fully  and  rapidly  done. 

At  the  same  time  the  grand  Charles  R.  Woods, 
whose  division  was  next  to  Schofield,  was  quietly 
forming  his  brigades  at  right  angles  to  and  in  rear 
of  our  line.  Logan  was  also  bringing  some  of  Har¬ 
row’s  division  to  bear  from  beyond  them,  and  mov- 

13 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

ing  up  August  Mersy’s  brigade  from  Dodge  to  replace 
Martin’s,  whose  early  call  and  march  to  help  the  left¬ 
most  battle  had  weakened  Liglitburn’s  front. 

The  cannon  were  making  much  disturbance.  The 
smoke  was  often  blinding  and  the  roar  deafening; 
such  firing  kept  back  the  remainder  of  Cheatham’s 
lines.  Woods’s  men  advanced  steadily  down  the  line; 
there  was  no  break,  no  hesitation,  no  halt ;  on,  on  they 
go  till  the  opening  is  reached  and  the  continuity  of 
Logan’s  line  was  soon  restored.  Every  Confederate 
who  was  not  made  a  prisoner  fled  toward  Atlanta, 
and  Captain  DeGress,  though  his  horses  were  killed 
during  the  cannonade,  had  the  joy  of  recovering  his 
big  guns. 

Schofield  now  urged  Sherman  to  put  a  column  on 
Cheatham’s  flank  from  himself  and  Thomas  to  roll  up 
that  Confederate  line  and  so  interpose  between  the 
outside  Confederates  and  those  defending  the  works 
of  Atlanta.  Sherman,  whose  face  now  relaxed  into 
a  pleasant  mood,  said :  “  Let  the  Army  of  the  Tennes¬ 
see  fight  it  out !  ” 

In  the  afternoon  Sprague,  near  Decatur  with  his 
own  regiments,  aided  by  Kuhn’s  battalion  of  mounted 
infantry,  handsomely  repulsed  Wheeler’s  vigorous  cav¬ 
alry  and  artillery  attacks  and  saved  all  the  trains 
under  his  care  from  capture  or  damage. 

Hood,  at  last  weary,  drew  Hardee  and  Cheatham 
back  to  the  shelter  of  the  Atlanta  forts,  leaving  havoc 
behind,  but  sweeping  in  some  prisoners  of  war,  some 
flags,  and  many  cannon.  He  reported  bravely  to 
Richmond  and  issued  orders  of  congratulation  to  his 
troops.  He  doubtless  at  first  esteemed  this  bloody 
battle  a  Confederate  victory.  But  we  never  so  re¬ 
garded  this ;  it  was  indeed  the  main  battle  of  Atlanta. 

14 


Battle  of  Atlanta 


Among  the  prominent  officers  slain  was  one  well 
known  to  all  onr  old  army  comrades,  the  Confederate 
division  commander,  William  H.  T.  Walker,  who  fell 
near  Dodge’s  line.  The  mourning  for  our  favorite 
young  commander,  McPherson,  was  heartfelt  and 
widespread.  No  patriot  soldier  to-day  is  more  ten¬ 
derly  remembered  in  our  land. 


i 


15 


CHAPTER  XXXYI 


BATTLE  OF  EZRA  CHURCH 

rpHE  next  five  days  after  the  battle  of  Atlanta  were 
^  busy  ones  for  every  part  of  the  army.  The  lofty 
bridge  over  the  Chattahoochee,  that  connected  us  again 
with  Marietta  and  the  north,  had  been  speedily  rebuilt, 
so  that  now  there  was  a  shorter  haul  for  all  our  sup¬ 
plies.  It  was  necessary  to  bring  forward  what  was 
needed  of  food  and  rations ;  to  get  the  comforts  for  the 
use  of  the  sick  and  wounded  who  remained  in  the 
field;  to  readjust  lines  and  batteries  and  make  all  the 
trenches  secure  against  Hood’s  known  impulsiveness; 
to  bring  to  the  front  absentees  and  recruits,  and  to  rest 
and  refresh  our  weary  men. 

Sherman  and  Thomas  consulted  together  as  to  the 
officer  who  should  succeed  McPherson  and  the  choice 
fell  upon  me.  The  orders  from  President  Lincoln  ap¬ 
pointing  me  to  the  command  of  the  Army  and  the  De¬ 
partment  of  the  Tennessee  reached  me  the  evening  of 
the  26tli.  General  Logan  and  his  friends  desired  that 
he  should  be  assigned  to  this  command  and  were,  of 
course,  disappointed,  but  he  at  once  resumed  the  com¬ 
mand  of  his  Fifteenth  Corps.  Hooker  ostensibly  was 
offended  that  he,  who  was  my  senior  in  rank,  had  not 
received  the  appointment,  and  asked  to  be  relieved. 
Slocum  was  brought  from  Vicksburg  to  replace  him  at 
the  head  of  the  Twentieth  Corps.  Stanley  succeeded 
me  in  the  Fourth  Corps. 


16 


Battle  of  Ezra  Church 


Sherman  in  his  “  Memoirs  ”  has  put  forth  his  rea¬ 
sons  for  the  changes  of  organization  so  simply  and  so 
plainly  that  they  should  relieve  me  from  any  suspicion 
of  self-seeking  in  obtaining  a  promotion  that,  as  every 
soldier  knows,  I  would  highly  value ;  he  says :  “  All 

these  promotions  happened  to  fall  upon  West  Pointers, 
and  doubtless  Logan  and  Blair  had  some  reason  to  be¬ 
lieve  that  we  intended  to  monopolize  the  higher  honors 
of  the  war  for  the  regular  officers.  I  remember  well 
my  thoughts  and  feelings  at  the  time,  and  feel  sure 
that  I  was  not  intentionally  partial  to  any  class.”  Of 
course,  Slocum  and  I  had  both  resigned  from  the  reg¬ 
ular  army. 

By  the  end  of  five  days  Sherman  had  matured  his 
plan  to  gain  ground  by  extending  his  right  till  he  had 
severed  Hood’s  southern  railroad  connections,  as  he 
had  just  cut  the  eastern,  or  Augusta,  line. 

In  connection  with  the  instructions  already  given 
me  for  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee  to  move  from  Sher¬ 
man’s  left  to  his  right,  Schofield  had  made,  near  the 
Howard  House,  by  the  help  of  picks  and  shovels,  a 
strong  left  flank,  for  he  was  now  to  temporarily  hold 
tenaciously  Sherman’s  left. 

Logan,  at  a  very  early  hour  of  July  27,  1864, 
had  set  in  motion  the  three  corps,  Dodge’s,  Blair’s, 
and  Logan’s,  marching  in  the  order  named.  In  per¬ 
son  I  joined  Dodge,  at  the  head  of  the  column,  as  he 
was  already  in  Thomas’s  rear  crossing  the  Buck  Head 
road.  Here  I  assumed  command  of  the  army.  Sher¬ 
man  with  a  small  staff  came  from  his  meager  head¬ 
quarters  near  the  line  of  march,  and  rode  along  with 
me  all  the  way  behind  Thomas’s  lines  to  his  extreme 
right,  where  Palmer’s  intrencliments  ended. 

Sherman  told  me  that  Morgan’s  division  had  that 

17 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

morning  gone  on  by  the  Turner’s  Ferry  road,  which 
runs  westerly.  We,  having  just  crossed  it,  turned 
southward  just  outside  the  forts  which  led  a  mile  and 
a  half  to  the  Lick  Skillet  road.  When  he  took  me  to  a 
high  point  and  showed  me  a  wooded  ridge  between  us 
and  Atlanta,  along  which  he  desired  me  to  form  my 
troops,  substantially  connecting  with  Thomas,  but  fol¬ 
lowing  the  curve  of  the  Atlanta  works.  This  ridge  ran 
nearly  north  and  south.  He  believed  that  my  lines 
would  be  long  enough  to  enable  me  to  get  hold  of 
Hood’s  railroad  there  before  Hood  could  extend  his 
trenches. 

Sherman,  not  expecting  an  attack,  said  that  there 
would  be  little  risk  in  my  moving  straight  along  by 
the  flank  down  the  road  before  us,  which  we  afterwards 
found  led  to  Ezra  Church.  The  land  was  covered  for 
the  most  part  thickly  with  trees  to  the  left  or  east  of 
my  road.  Seeing  the  nature  of  the  country,  and  al¬ 
ready  having  had  experience  of  Hood’s  enterprise,  I 
thought  that  we  should  be  attacked  certainly  before 
we  could  possibly  close  up  and  get  into  position.  I  in¬ 
timated  this  to  Sherman,  and  said  that  if  he  did  not 
object,  instead  of  pushing  out  my  right  into  the  air, 
I  would  carefully  unfold  by  having  the  divisions  take 
their  places  on  Thomas’s  right,  moving  up  in  succes¬ 
sion,  so  that  each  successive  division  would  protect 
the  flank  of  the  preceding.  In  reply  to  my  suggestion, 
Sherman  said  he  did  not  think  that  Hood  would  trou¬ 
ble  me,  but  was  willing  I  should  deploy  my  army  in  my 
own  way.  Then  Sherman  left  me. 

Corse  commanded  Hodge’s  leading  division.  He 
turned  to  the  left  and  occupied  the  leftmost  section  of 
the  new  line,  pressing  well  forward  until  he  came  as 
near  the  enemy’s  parapet  as  possible.  Fuller’s  divi- 

18 


Battle  of  Ezra  Church 


sion,  partially  deployed,  next  wheeled  and  ascended 
the  slope,  continuing  the  line.  Other  divisions  went  on 
in  succession  to  do  the  same  until  dark. 

The  day  had  been  a  wearisome  one  for  the  troops ; 
for,  besides  the  long  march,  they  had  been  obliged  to 
wait  here  and  there  for  reconnoissance,  the  putting 
out  of  infantry  flankers,  no  cavalry  being  with  me,  so 
that  only  Dodge’s  corps  was  entirely  in  place  at  sun¬ 
down. 

Blair’s  outposts  already  held  a  junction  of  roads 
and  his  corps  was  deployed  facing  southeasterly  to¬ 
ward  the  hamlet  Lick  Skillet.  A  road  ran  from  the 
city  west  to  Ezra  Church,  then  southwest  for  a  quarter 
of  a  mile,  thence  westerly  again. 

Logan’s  Fifteenth  Corps  was  halted  for  part  of  the 
night  in  reserve.  We  were  at  work  at  the  first  glim¬ 
mer  of  light  the  28th.  During  the  morning  Blair’s 
division  slowly  turned  to  the  left  and  moved  forward 
by  divisions  in  echelon,  and  when  in  place  his  right  was 
about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  above  Ezra  Church.  Logan, 
deploying  everything  except  a  reasonable  reserve, 
pushed  slowly  southward.  One  of  his  divisions,  that 
of  Charles  R.  Woods,  occupied  the  space  from  Blair 
to  and  including  the  church. 

The  other  two,  Harrow’s  and  Morgan  L.  Smith’s, 
pretty  well  developed,  followed  their  skirmish  lines, 
keeping  them  in  sight  as  well  as  they  could  through 
rough  hollows  and  wooded  ravines.  Just  as  the  right 
division  had  seized  with  its  advance  a  ridge  of  land 
that  made  almost  a  right  angle  with  the  north  and 
south  road,  General  Sherman  had  returned  and  joined 
me,  and  we  were  moving  along  in  rear  with  our  de¬ 
ployed  lines  full  in  sight. 

There  had  been  an  ever-increasing  skirmish  all  the 

19 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

morning.  Now  the  rifle  firing  on  our  front  increased. 
Suddenly  there  was  sound  of  cannon.  We  heard  the 
rattle  of  grapeshot  in  the  trees  near  by  and  above  us. 
Limbs  were  severed  and  fell  to  the  ground.  I  turned 
to  Sherman  and  said  there  would  be  a  battle  soon;  he 
replied  he  did  not  think  so.  Then  I  called  his  attention 
to  the  shot  which  were  clipping  off  the  branches  of  the 
trees.  The  indications  were  so  strong  that  we  would 
be  attacked  that  Logan  called  a  halt  of  his  main  lines 
and  I  ordered  that  our  front  be  covered  as  speedily 
as  possible  with  logs  and  rails.  An  old  field  partially 
cleared  and  fenced,  fortunately  for  us,  lay  between 
my  position  and  the  lines,  which  in  general  extended 
along  the  high  ridge  before  us.  Here  our  men  found 
some  rails  and  plenty  of  stumps  and  logs.  These 
men  by  details  were  soon  running  with  logs  and 
rails  in  their  arms  and  on  their  shoulders.  Owing 
to  the  conformation  of  the  ground,  Logan’s  two 
divisions,  Harrow’s  and  Morgan  L.  Smith’s,  which 
were  formed  on  the  right  of  Woods’s  division,  made 
nearly  a  right  angle  with  the  rest  of  the  line.  We 
had  no  time  to  locate  our  batteries  in  front  without 
too  much  exposure  in  case  of  an  enemy’s  charge; 
so  that  I  had  only  a  few  of  them  brought  forward 
and  kept  within  call  should  an  emergency  require 
them. 

Sherman  remained  with  me  until  we  were  in  posi¬ 
tion.  He  remarked  again  that  he  hardly  thought  I 
should  have  a  general  battle ;  but  that  in  case  of  an  at¬ 
tack  in  force  Morgan’s  division,  which  was  reconnoi- 
tering  to  Turner’s  Ferry,  would  come  back  by  a  road 
so  as  to  give  complete  protection  to  my  right  flank; 
indeed,  he  would  send  and  order  it.  Then  he  left  me, 
saying  he  would  return  to  the  center,  telling  me  to  call 

20 


Battle  of  Ezra  Church 


on  him  if  I  needed  any  assistance.  Thus  he  permitted 
me  to  conduct  my  first  battle  alone. 

One  of  Logan’s  batteries  I  then  sent  to  the  front 
and  located  not  far  from  the  road,  with  a  view  to  re¬ 
plying  to  the  enemy’s  troublesome,  though  fitful,  can¬ 
nonading.  The  woods  there  were  too  thick  for  any¬ 
thing  except  blind  action  in  the  use  of  artillery  on 
either  side. 

Blair  and  Dodge,  and  Charles  R.  Woods,  from  their 
first  approaches,  had  strong  skirmishing ;  then  encoun¬ 
tered  brisk  firing,  particularly  from  artillery  with  most 
annoying  shrapnel  shells  from  the  Atlanta  works. 
Logan’s  men  worked  diligently  and  soon  had  sufficient 
cover  to  give  them  partial  protection  against  musketry 
when  kneeling  or  lying  down.  The  ridge  itself  gave 
fair  protection  to  the  reserves  and  field  hospitals.  At 
this  time,  about  11.30  a.m.,  the  fearful  yells,  fierce  and 
numerous,  which  we  had  heard  so  many  times  before, 
came  to  the  ears  of  our  waiting  men. 

Lieutenant  General  Stephen  D.  Lee,  my  classmate 
at  West  Point  and  a  comrade  in  the  spring  of  1857  in 
Florida,  was  assigned  by  the  Richmond  government 
to  command  the  army  corps  which  had  been  led  by 
Hood  before  his  promotion,  S.  D.  Lee’s  assumption 
of  his  command  was  of  the  same  date  as  mine.  Hood, 
as  soon  as  he  divined  Sherman’s  design  of  threatening 
his  line  of  supply  on  his  left  instead  of  his  right  as 
heretofore,  meditated  a  plan  of  resistance  similar  to 
that  in  his  last  battle,  July  22d.  Instructing  Hardee 
with  his  corps  and  the  Georgia  militia  to  hold  the  At¬ 
lanta  works,  he  ordered  Lee  to  move  out  his  three  divi¬ 
sions  to  the  Lick  Skillet  road,  where,  near  Ezra 
Church,  he  would  find  Jackson’s  cavalry. 

Hood  also  instructed  Stewart  to  proceed  with  two 

21 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

divisions  of  liis  corps  to  follow  Lee  and  mass  his  troops 
near  the  place  in  the  works  where  the  Lick  Skillet  road 
left  the  city.  Stewart,  with  a  clear  road,  was  to  be 
there  the  morning  of  the  29tli,  to  pass  beyond  Lee,  gain 
ground,  and  attack,  as  far  as  possible,  beyond  my  right 
flank.  The  roads  were  favorable  to  this  flank  move¬ 
ment. 

When  the  fearful  Confederate  shouts,  so  strong 
and  confident,  reached  our  ears,  every  man  along  the 
exposed  front  line  carefully  knelt  behind  their  slight 
defenses,  or  lay  prone  upon  the  ground  with  rifle  in 
hand,  gazing  steadily  through  the  forest  toward  the 
ominous  sound. 

Field  and  company  officers  gave  a  warning  note: 
“  Take  steady  aim  and  fire  low  at  the  word !  ”  After 
a  few  minutes  of  waiting  the  men  on  the  ridge  caught 
glimpses  of  the  approaching  Confederates  tramping 
steadily  and  rapidly  through  the  underbrush. 

Next,  without  any  record  of  orders  given,  the  fire- 
at-will  began.  At  first,  only  two  or  three  heavy  guns 
took  any  part,  so  that  the  roar  came  increasing  and 
diminishing  from  rapid  rifle  firing.  The  Confederates 
used  some  cannon ;  limbs  of  trees  were  broken  and  fell ; 
a  few  frightened  men,  as  always,  sprang  away  and  ran 
toward  the  rear,  some  giving  way  on  our  extreme 
right. 

Logan  became  greatly  animated  and  rushed  for  all 
stragglers  with  drawn  saber,  and,  assisted  by  his  offi¬ 
cers,  drove  them  back  to  their  commands. 

On  the  skirmish  line  opposite  our  extreme  right 
Major  Charles  Hipp,  with  the  Thirty-seventh  Ohio, 
aided  by  another  regiment,  had  prepared  a  log  house 
for  defense,  and  thrown  out  his  skirmishers  right  and 
left.  To  the  left  of  him,  on  the  lower  ground,  Colonel 

22 


Battle  of  Ezra  Church 

W.  S.  Jones  had  two  other  regiments,  with  a  section  of 
artillery,  in  support  of  skirmishers  and  as  an  advance 
guard. 

The  first  warning  to  Major  Hipp  was  heavy  firing 
to  his  left.  He  was  evidently  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
Confederates,  though  not  of  their  skirmish  line.  Next, 
a  shot  penetrated  his  breast;  still  he  remained  at  his 
post.  When  they  came  near  enough,  Hipp’s  regiment 
opened  fire.  Again  he  was  shot,  which  caused  him  to 
fall  from  his  horse. 

Sergeant  Ernst  Torgler,  who  brought  him  off  the 
field,  received  for  it  a  medal  of  honor.  The  adjutant, 
Lambert,  acting  for  the  major,  brought  the  regiment, 
fighting  its  way,  without  loss  of  order,  all  the  way  back 
to  our  main  line.  Colonel  Jones  also  succeeded  in  re¬ 
tiring  his  command  to  its  proper  front.  It  was  doubt¬ 
less  such  temporary  covers  as  these  outside  regi¬ 
ments  had  had  which  caused  Confederate  officers  to 
think  that  tliev  had  driven  back  our  men  from  a  main 
line  of  works. 

In  my  first  report  concerning  troops  called  by  me 
from  Dodge  and  Blair,  I  used  these  words : 

Four  regiments  were  sent  at  once,  but  before  their 
arrival  the  first  shock  had  passed,  the  enemy  having 
been  driven  back  at  every  point  except  on  the  extreme 
right  where  there  was  scarcely  more  than  a  skirmish 
line  to  resist  them.  As  soon  as  possible  my  aid,  Cap¬ 
tain  Gilbreth,  led  up  two  regiments  to  prolong  the 
right.  Two  others,  led  by  my  inspector  general, 
Strong,  followed  to  the  same  point. 

Early  in  the  action,  remembering  some  remarkable 
experiences  on  other  fields,  I  thought  I  would  make 
assurance  doubly  sure.  So  I  caused  twenty-six  pieces 
of  artillery  to  be  so  arranged  that  they  swept  all  the 

23 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

ground  beyond  Logan’s  right  flank,  though  but  a  few 
pieces  of  artillery  were  fired  along  his  front,  and  the 
repulses,  one  after  another,  from  the  beginning  of  the 
Confederate  attack  to  the  close,  were  made  mainly  by 
riflemen. 

The  two  regiments  brought  by  Colonel  Strong  were 
armed  with  breech-loading  rifles,  the  first  used  in  the 
war.  The  Confederates  at  that  point  had  kept  bravely 
on.  Some  were  tramping  the  rail  piles;  a  few  had 
passed  them  when  those  repeating  arms  began  their 
work.  The  Confederate  soldiers  fell  there;  but  few 
escaped  death,  wounds,  or  capture. 

Knowing  Sherman’s  desire  for  Morgan’s  division 
to  come  in  on  my  right,  something  as  Bluclier  did  on 
Wellington’s  left  at  Waterloo,  in  the  middle  of  the  af¬ 
ternoon  I  sent  word  to  Sherman  about  the  situation. 

Furthermore,  as  the  contest  was  prolonged,  and  I 
had  Dodge  and  Blair  tied  up  against  the  Atlanta  works 
which  occupied  them,  I  feared  that  Logan’s  men  might 
weary.  So,  before  night,  I  sent  my  brother,  Lieutenant 
Colonel  C.  H.  Howard,  to  Sherman  for  a  brigade, 
which  he  sent  at  once,  but  it  did  not  arrive  until  the 
action  was  over. 

This  was  my  first  battle  after  taking  command  of 
the  Army  of  the  Tennessee,  and  I  was  delighted  with 
the  conduct  of  the  officers  and  men.  Major  General 
Logan  was  spirited  and  energetic,  going  at  once  to  the 
point  where  he  apprehended  the  slightest  danger  of 
the  enemy’s  success.  His  decision  and  resolution  ev¬ 
erywhere  animated  and  encouraged  his  officers  and 
men.  The  division  commanders,  Generals  Woods,  M. 
L.  Smith,  and  Harrow  showed  gallant  conduct  and 
well-timed  skill ;  they  repelled  many  terrible  and  per¬ 
sistent  attacks  of  the  enemy. 

24 


Battle  of  Ezra  Church 


The  number  of  the  Confederate  slain  left  in  our 
front  exceeded  our  entire  loss — 642.  We  captured 
five  battle  flags,  1,500  muskets,  and  many  prisoners. 
After  the  battle  of  Ezra  Church,  Hood  confined  him¬ 
self  to  the  defensive  as  long  as  we  were  in  the  neigh¬ 
borhood  of  Atlanta. 

That  evening  my  ambition  stimulated  me  to  put 
in  fresh  troops  in  order  to  sweep  the  field  and  make  a 
bold  and  strong  effort  to  capture  Atlanta ;  but  Logan’s 
men  were  much  fatigued.  Blair’s  and  Hodge’s  had 
been  on  the  qui  vive  all  day  within  reach  of  the  en¬ 
emy’s  cannonade,  constantly  kept  up,  and  Morgan’s 
division  had  not  succeeded  in  joining  us;  the  Atlanta 
works  were  complete  and  strong,  therefore  my  cooler 
judgment  said,  Let  well  enough  alone. 

After  I  had  gone  along  the  front  lines  and  said 
what  I  could  in  appreciation  of  the  wonderful  defense 
made  by  our  gallant  soldiers,  I  simply  ordered  Logan 
to  double  his  skirmish  lines  and  press  them  beyond  us 
as  far  out  as  practicable,  and  then  give  to  the  com¬ 
mands  rest  and  quiet  for  the  night.  I  soon  learned 
positively  that  this  terrible  assault  was  made  by  my 
old  friend  and  classmate,  Lieutenant  General  Stephen 
H.  Lee,1  commanding  three  divisions,  while  General 
Stewart’s  two  divisions  supported  him. 

Under  cover  of  the  darkness  General  Lee  withdrew 
from  my  front,  after  giving  us  a  slight  show  of  life 
through  the  firing  of  his  artillery  and  infantry  rear 
guard.  Then  he  hastened  within  the  protection  of  the 
strong  forts  of  Atlanta. 

1  General  Stephen  D.  Lee  at  this  writing,  1907,  is  the  Commander  of 
the  Society  of  Confederate  Veterans,  with  his  home  at  Jackson,  Miss.  He 
is  much  esteemed  by  all  who  know  him.  General  Lee  and  I  are  the  last  sur¬ 
viving  commanders  of  independent  armies  in  the  field  during  the  Civil 
War. 


25 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

The  letter  which  I  wrote  that  day  from  the  field  of 
battle  was  as  follows : 

Major  General  W.  T.  Sherman,  Commanding  Military  Division 
of  the  Mississippi. 

General:  The  corps  of  Hood  attacked  us  to-day  at  11.30 
a.m.  on  the  right  of  my  line,  mainly  opposite  the  Fifteenth 
Corps,  with  lines  extending  beyond  my  right  flank.  The  as¬ 
saults  were  pertinaciously  kept  up  for  four  hours,  with  scarcely 
any  intermission,  and  were  invariably  repulsed.  The  enemy's 
dead  lay  thickly  on  our  front.  We  took  several  stands  of 
colors  and  quite  a  number  of  prisoners.  General  Logan  bore 
the  brunt  of  the  battle,  and  his  command  acquitted  itself 
nobly.  Generals  Blair  and  Dodge  weakened  their  lines  to  the 
lowest  limits  in  order  to  extend  his  flank  and  reenforce  him  at 
any  point.  Our  casualties  were  small,  owing  to  the  fact  that  we 
had  just  covered  ourselves  with  rough  barricades.  Some  of 
Polk's  (Stewart's)  command  was  engaged  in  the  last  assaults. 
I  will  make  a  more  specific  report  as  soon  as  I  can  get  the 
requisite  returns  from  the  different  commands. 

Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

O.  O.  Howard,  Major  General. 

There  is  one  letter  that  I  find  in  the  public  records 
which  I  have  never  seen  till  now.  I  shall  prize  it  as 
I  do  the  “  thanks  of  Congress.”  It  is  from  Sherman, 
addressed  to  Schofield  the  evening  of  that  memorable 
day.  It  reads: 

“  General  Howard's  conduct  to-day  had  an  excellent  effect 
on  his  command.  After  the  firing  had  ceased,  he  walked  the 
line,  and  the  men  gathered  about  him  in  the  most  affectionate 
manner,  and  he  at  once  gained  their  hearts  and  their  confi¬ 
dence.  I  deem  this  a  perfect  restoration  to  confidence  in 
themselves  and  the  leader  of  that  army.” 


26 


CHAPTER  XXXVII 


BATTLE  OF  JONESBORO 


SHERMAN  had  three  cavalry  divisions  of  consid¬ 
erable  strength — Ed.  McCook’s,  3,500  effectives, 
at  Turner’s  Ferry,  where  the  Chattahoochee  was 
bridged;  Stoneman’s,  2,500,  and  Garrard’s,  4,000,  at 
or  near  Decatur,  Ga.,  on  his  left. 

The  cavalry,  except  Garrard’s,  received  its  raiding 
orders  and  set  forth  to  go  south  and  carry  them  out. 
Sherman  now  for  three  or  four  days  strengthened  his 
right  flank  by  putting  two  infantry  divisions  of  Thomas 
in  rear  of  my  right  for  a  reserve.  Sherman  was 
mainly  waiting  for  the  effect  of  this  cavalry  movement 
against  the  railroad  about  Jonesboro. 

The  first  report  that  came  to  him,  August  1st,  to  the 
effect  that  Ed.  McCook’s  division  had  been  defeated 
and  captured,  he  stoutly  discredited  and  disbelieved; 
yet  he  took  prompt  action  in  view  of  the  possibility 
of  such  a  disaster.  He  put  all  the  garrisons  guarding 
our  depots  and  communications  on  the  alert,  brought 
Schofield’s  troops  around  to  and  beyond  my  right,  and 
had  Thomas  send  there  also  the  whole  of  Palmer’s 
corps. 

Ed.  McCook  had  done  well  at  the  first  onset.  He 
struck  the  railroad  and  did  much  damage,  and  finding 
no  cooperation  from  Stoneman,  drifted  back  with  over 
400  prisoners  to  Newnan.  Here  McCook  was  defeated 

27 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

by  General  Alexander  P.  Stewart’s  infantry  and  lost 
his  captured  Confederates,  and  reported  from  Tur¬ 
ner’s  Ferry  his  own  loss  as  GOO. 

Stoneman,  for  some  unaccountable  reason,  did  not 
carry  out  Sherman’s  instructions  at  all.  Coming  from 
Decatur,  he  did  not  join  McCook  near  Jonesboro.  In¬ 
stead  of  that,  he  passed  off  behind  the  Ocmulgee  and 
went  down  on  the  eastern  bank.  A  Confederate  dis¬ 
patch  from  Macon  gave  the  result  of  his  raid: 

“  Stoneman,  after  having  his  force  routed  yester¬ 
day,  surrendered  with  500  men ;  the  rest  of  his  men  are 
scattered  and  flying  toward  Eatonton.  Many  have 
been  already  killed  or  captured.” 

Sherman,  after  this  sad  experiment,  declared  that 
onr  cavalry  “  could  not  or  would  not  make  a  sufficient 
lodgment  on  the  railroad  below  Atlanta,  and  that  noth¬ 
ing  would  suffice  but  for  us  to  reach  it  with  the  main 
body.” 

After  the  discomfiture  and  return  of  Ed.  McCook 
and  the  other  commanders,  Sherman,  with  marvelous 
quickness,  had  our  cavalry  reorganized  and  resupplied. 
He  now  formed  it  into  three  divisions,  under  Garrard, 
McCook,  and  Kilpatrick.  The  latter,  with  his  opti¬ 
mistic  nature  and  fearless  enterprise,  had  come  back 
to  us  after  the  healing  of  his  Resaca  wound. 

Hood  then  tried  Sherman’s  cavalry  plan  on  a 
larger  scale.  Forrest  and  Wheeler,  with  abundant 
horses,  were  sent  against  our  long  line  of  supply 
between  Atlanta  and  Nashville;  Forrest  above  and 
Wheeler  below  Chattanooga  with  hope  of  drawing 
Sherman  away  from  Atlanta,  so  that  Hood  could  fall 
on  his  rear  with  his  main  army.  But  these  efforts  of 
the  Confederate  cavalry  were  as  effectually  thwarted 
by  Sherman  as  Sherman’s  cavalry  had  been  by  Hood., 

28 


Battle  of  Jonesboro 


Hood  at  last  acknowledged  that  he  could  not  any¬ 
where  in  our  rear  bring  together  sufficient  force  at 
important  points  on  the  line  to  compel  our  retreat. 

Sherman  tried  one  more  raid,  using  the  energy  of 
our  sanguine  Kilpatrick.  That  general  made  his 
march  with  promptness,  but  soon  came  back.  His 
report  claimed  three  miles  of  railway  track  destroyed 
near  Jonesboro,  the  capture  of  four  cannon,  spiking 
three  and  bringing  in  one;  three  battle  flags  and  sev¬ 
enty  prisoners  of  war.  His  visit,  however,  he  owned, 
was  shortened  by  encountering  a  brigade  of  Confed¬ 
erate  cavalry  and  a  Confederate  infantry  division. 

Two  days  after  Kilpatrick’s  return  one  would 
hardly  believe  that  he  had  been  defeated  at  all.  His 
memory  and  his  imagination  were  often  in  conflict,  but 
we  all  liked  his  bright  face  and  happy  stories. 

Meanwhile,  the  work  of  extending  our  line  near  At¬ 
lanta  had  gone  on.  Hood’s  intrencliments  had  fol¬ 
lowed  suit,  ever  protecting  his  railroad,  a  vital  line 
of  supply.  When  Schofield  and  Palmer  went  to  my 
right,  Bate  and  Cleburne  went  to  Hood’s  left. 

Without  too  much  detour,  Sherman  put  upon  Scho¬ 
field  the  special  work  of  striking  a  heavier  blow  than 
those  we  had  been  able  to  deliver  since  “  Ezra  Chapel  ” 
and  directed  Palmer  to  report  to  Schofield.  As 
Palmer  asserted  himself  as  senior  in  rank  and  would 
not  help,  Schofield  was  unable  to  carry  out  Sherman’s 
wishes. 

When  Sherman  criticised  Palmer’s  course,  he  re¬ 
signed,  and  Brigadier  General  Jeff  C.  Davis  was  pro¬ 
moted  to  a  major  general  and  sent  to  the  command  of 
the  Fourteenth  Corps.  Schofield,  though  Palmer’s 
junior,  had  been  assigned  to  an  army  and  depart¬ 
ment  by  the  President. 


29 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

This  friction  occurred  at  a  most  unfortunate  time 
in  the  face  of  the  enemy  and  it  caused  delay  and  loss 
to  us.  I  had  always  regarded  General  Palmer  as  a 
strong  man,  brave  and  resolute  and  of  good  judg¬ 
ment.  Under  similar  circumstances  to  his,  perhaps 
a  little  more  aggravating,  I  served  under  a  junior, 
biding  my  time.  Of  course,  one  must  be  guided  by  his 
sense  of  what  is  right ;  yet,  in  case  of  doubt,  he  ought 
to  give  the  benefit  of  his  doubt  to  his  country’s 
service. 

At  one  period  Sherman  had  heavy  guns  brought 
up  and  bombarded  Atlanta,  carrying  into  it  terror  and 
destruction.  This  was  not  sufficient,  however,  to  in¬ 
duce  Hood  to  surrender. 

On  August  16th,  Sherman,  being  resolved  to  attack 
Hood’s  railway  lines,  issued  his  orders  for  the  follow¬ 
ing  movements:  First:  the  Twentieth  Corps  was  sent 
back  to  fortify  and  hold  the  Chattahoochee  bridge. 
Second:  Schofield’s  forces  and  mine  to  move  on  the 
station  at  Fairburn;  then  directly  against  the  West 
Point  railroad  between  Ped  Oak  and  Fairburn ; 
Thomas  was  to  follow  up  in  support. 

Forrest’s  and  Wheeler’s  raids  on  Sherman’s  rear 
somewhat  modified  these  orders,  but  Thomas  began 
the  execution  of  the  first  move  on  the  night  of 
August  25tli. 

The  movement  of  the  Twentieth  Corps  toward 
the  rear,  followed  by  the  remainder  of  Thomas’s  com¬ 
mand,  which  was  going  on  toward  our  right  flank,  had 
the  effect,  as  was  natural,  of  deceiving  the  Confeder¬ 
ate  commander.  The  night  of  the  26th  my  move  be¬ 
gan.  My  army  (of  the  Tennessee)  was  at  the  time 
25,000  strong.  We  wakened  the  men  quietly  and  turned 
our  faces  southward  in  two  well-organized  columns. 

30 


Battle  of  Jonesboro 


A  guide  was  at  the  head  of  each;  he  had  previ¬ 
ously  gone  over  the  route  of  march  and  made  him¬ 
self  acquainted  with  the  maps.  It  was  a  solemn  pro¬ 
cession,  every  regiment  coming  without  noise  into  its 
place ;  one  brigade  followed  another  until  my  late  posi¬ 
tion  was  denuded  of  everything  but  a  few  skirmishers. 
The  noise  of  the  wagons  and  batteries  in  motion  had 
been  carefully  provided  against.  As  my  staff  officer, 
left  behind  to  see  the  ground  cleared  and  to  report 
to  me  the  final  closing  up  of  the  rear  guard,  was  con¬ 
gratulating  himself  that  the  whole  work  had  been  so 
noiselessly  performed  that  the  enemy  had  no  suspicion 
of  its  operation,  he  was  startled  by  a  sudden  artillery 
fire  from  the  Confederate  side ;  probably  the  very  still¬ 
ness  of  the  night  exaggerated  the  sound  of  the  cannon. 
Round  shot  broke  small  trees  and  dropped  branches 
to  the  ground,  altogether  too  near  the  dim  roadway 
which  the  men  were  pursuing. 

I  heard  the  firing,  and  for  a  few  minutes  feared 
that  there  might  be  a  panic  among  some  of  our 
men ;  but  my  fears  were  rather  born  of  previous  expe¬ 
riences  with  other  commands  than  from  the  knowl¬ 
edge  of  those  Western  veterans.  At  this  time  the 
men,  without  exception,  resolutely  continued  their 
march. 

The  cannon  shot  and  shell  passed  over  us  and  be¬ 
yond  without  great  damage.  A  single  soldier,  how¬ 
ever,  was  killed,  and  another  wounded,  having  his  leg 
broken.  In  the  retrospect  even  this  comparatively 
small  loss  excites  our  sympathy,  for  human  life  is 
precious. 

When  day  dawned  we  were  beyond  the  reach  of 
danger  from  the  rear.  This  march  was  the  first  that 
I  had  made  in  conjunction  with  Kilpatrick.  He  cleared 

31 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

ray  way  as  rapidly  as  lie  could  of  the  enemy’s  cavalry 
and  artillery  with  it. 

Whoever  commanded  that  Confederate  cavalry  did 
it  well.  He  made  bridgeheads  at  the  crossing  of 
creeks;  destroyed  every  bridge  that  would  facilitate 
our  march;  he  would  make  barricades  of  logs  or  rails 
in  the  edge  of  a  wood,  where  it  ran  at  right  angles  to 
our  pathway. 

When  the  enemy  seemed  too  strong  for  Kilpatrick 
I  sent  forward  a  battery  at  a  trot  and  infantry  enough 
to  protect  it.  As  a  rule,  an  effort  of  this  kind  was  suffi¬ 
cient  to  clear  the  way,  but  now  and  then  the  Confeder¬ 
ate  cavalry  would  get  so  good  a  position,  either  at  a 
creek  crossing  or  in  the  forest,  that  it  became  neces¬ 
sary  to  halt  all  hands  and  send  a  regiment  or  a  bri¬ 
gade  around  his  flank,  and  so  root  him  out. 

I  shall  never  forget  that  march.  The  country  was 
mostly  covered  with  trees,  more  or  less  dense,  and  it 
was  rough,  so  that  it  was  exceedingly  hard  to  ma¬ 
neuver  any  considerable  body  of  horsemen.  Having 
now  to  do  with  cavalry,  I  was  apprehensive  of  a  sur¬ 
prise,  particularly  when  the  horses  were  crowded  to¬ 
gether  in  narrow  roads;  so  I  became  quite  happy 
and  satisfied  to  see  how  Kilpatrick  managed.  He 
kept  his  guard  so  far  out  that  all  the  irregularities  of 
a  cavalry  bivouac  did  not  much  disturb  him. 

Logan,  as  wide  awake  by  night  as  by  day,  passed 
across  the  Utoy  and  on  to  Camp  Creek,  near  Fairburn. 
Blair,  who  led  the  other  column,  was  followed  by  the 
Sixteenth  Corps.  Dodge  had  been  wounded  after 
Ezra  Chapel  and  was  obliged  to  retire  for  a  time. 
General  Bansom,  a  young  officer  of  great  promise,  was 
commanding  his  corps.  With  Kilpatrick  on  our  right, 
we  went  into  position  according  to  our  instructions. 

32 


Battle  of  Jonesboro 


Very  early  on  tlie  27th  Kilpatrick  drew  out  first 
and  pressed  on  rapidly  in  order,  if  possible,  to  drive 
the  enemy’s  outposts,  scouts,  and  cavalry  beyond  the 
West  Point  Railroad.  Feeling  himself  so  well  backed 
up,  Kilpatrick  was  this  time  successful  in  holding  on 
to  the  railroad. 

Getting  upon  the  railroad  by  twelve  o’clock  noon, 
I  deployed  in  the  usual  manner,  intrenched  enough 
for  protection  in  case  of  surprise,  with  the  hamlet  of 
Fairburn  in  plain  sight.  I  put  Kilpatrick  out  on  our 
approaches  so  as  to  give  us  plenty  of  warning;  Ran¬ 
som  was  placed  in  reserve.  Very  soon  the  lively  work 
of  railroad  breaking  was  undertaken.  We  could  see 
different  parties  of  the  road  destroyers;  one  party, 
now  standing  in  a  line,  seized  the  rails  and  lifted  all 
together,  causing  a  long  span  to  come  up  and  be 
broken  apart;  another  party,  catching  the  ties,  threw 
them  upon  a  log  fire  to  ruin  them.  Upon  the  top  of  a 
heap  others  piled  the  rails,  each  to  be  heated  in  the 
middle.  Another  group  would  run  with  a  rail  and 
push  its  hot  part  against  a  telegraph  pole  or  tree,  and 
run  around  the  trunk  in  opposite  directions. 

The  most  effective  disabling  of  a  rail  was  done  by 
using  two  short  hand  bars  with  a  contrivance  at  one 
end  of  each  to  seize  and  hold  the  rail  fast;  two  men  at 
each  hand  bar  turning  the  rail  in  opposite  directions 
would  make  a  twist.  Two  such  twists  prevented  the 
use  of  a  rail  till  it  had  gone  again  to  a  rolling  mill. 

Schofield  had  moved  a  little,  enough  to  free  his 
command  for  speedy  work,  and  watched  toward  the 
east  and  north  to  cover  all  trains.  Thomas  had 
chasseed  to  the  left,  and  he  came  up  abreast  of  me  at 
Red  Oak  Station;  and  we  all,  in  the  manner  we  have 
indicated,  spent  a  day  and  a  half  crippling  the  West 

33 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

Point  Railroad.  At  this  time,  by  the  close  of  August 
28tli,  one  road  for  miles  and  miles  was  beyond  mili¬ 
tary  repair. 

The  fourth  move  for  Jonesboro,  not  given  in  the 
preliminary  orders,  began  at  the  dawn  of  August 
30th.  Logan  moved  along  due  east,  taking  the  more 
northern  road,  guarding  the  left;  while  Ransom  and 
Blair  marched  on  a  road  to  the  right.  The  two  roads 
came  together  near  Shoal  Creek.  Kilpatrick  cleared 
the  way  as  before,  and  nothing  of  moment  delayed  our 
march  till  our  junction. 

At  this  creek  the  obstinacy  of  our  foes  increased, 
and  we  were  obliged  to  halt  and  reconnoiter.  Ransom 
used  two  regiments,  and  Logan  at  least  a  brigade,  in 
support  of  the  cavalry.  Very  soon  the  confronted 
barricades  were  abandoned  and  we  marched  on. 
Every  half  mile  this  operation  was  repeated  till  every¬ 
body  became  weary  and  impatient. 

Just  about  sundown  I  was  glad  enough  to  reach 
Renfro  Place,  my  destination.  Everybody  there, 
Union  and  Confederate,  made  a  halt  and  began  prep¬ 
arations  for  the  night  bivouac. 

In  the  sand  dunes  I  found  no  water  for  the  com¬ 
mand,  and  the  Flint  River  was  but  six  miles  ahead. 
I  had  heard  railroad  trains  and  steam  engines  on  the 
Macon  road  all  day,  and  knew  well  enough  that  Hood 
was  sending  troops.  The  principal  object  of  my  move 
was  plain  enough:  to  seize  Jonesboro  and  the  railway 
as  soon  as  possible.  After  a  few  moments’  reflection 
I  summoned  Kilpatrick  and  asked  him : 

“  Have  you  an  officer,  general,  who  with  a  small 
body  of  cavalry  can  keep  the  enemy  in  motion,  and  not 
allow  them  to  create  delay  between  this  Renfro  Place 
and  the  river?  ” 


34 


Battle  of  Jonesboro 

“  Just  the  man,  sir/’  he  replied. 

Then  he  turned  to  Captain  L.  Gf.  Estes,  assistant 
adjutant  general  on  his  staff.  In  a  few  moments 
Captain  Estes  brought  up  a  squadron  of  cavalry,  two 
excellent  troops.  He  moved  off  toward  the  Flint,  first 
at  a  quick  walk;  then,  as  he  neared  the  enemy’s  out¬ 
posts,  at  a  trot ;  and  the  Confederate  commander,  hear¬ 
ing  the  firing  and  seeing  his  outposts  driven  in,  had 
no  time  to  make  barricades.  He  saddled  up  and  re¬ 
tired  as  rapidly  as  he  could.  I  put  my  infantry 
quickly  upon  the  road,  and  with  my  staff  took  the 
lead,  following  the  skirmishers  ahead  of  me.  I  desired 
to  get  a  view  of  the  ground  before  darkness  set  in. 

There  was  a  swift  race  for  the  river.  Our  in¬ 
fantry  was  so  excited  that  they  almost  kept  up  with 
the  cavalry.  The  Confederates  made  a  brief  halt  at 
the  bridge  on  the  opposite  side,  firing  upon  us  from 
the  right  and  left,  while  some  two  or  three  men  set  the 
bridge  on  fire.  Captain  Estes’s  command  was  armed 
with  Spencer  repeating  rifles.  His  troops  deployed 
along  the  river  bank  and  began  their  increasing  fire, 
while  other  troopers  dismounted  and  rushed  for  the 
burning  bridge.  These  succeeded  in  extinguishing  the 
flames,  drove  back  the  defenders,  and  speedily  crossed 
over  to  the  other  side.  It  did  not  take  long  for  our 
infantry,  under  the  new  excitement,  to  reach  the  river 
and  deploy  their  own  skirmishers  in  support  of  the 
cavalry. 

Among  the  first  I  reached  the  bridge,  delayed  a  few 
minutes  to  reconnoiter,  and  then  crossed  over,  follow¬ 
ing  up  the  troops.  A  few  staff  officers  were  with  me, 
including  Lieutenant  Colonel  Stinson,  who  had  been  so 
severely  wounded  at  Pickett’s  Mill,  and  who  had  just 
returned  from  Cleveland,  Tenn.,  convalescent,  but  not 

35 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

entirely  well.  He  was  near  me  when  the  Confederates 
suddenly  fired  from  the  woods  which  fringed  the  op¬ 
posite  slope.  A  volley  passed  over  our  heads. 

At  that  instant  I  saw  Colonel  Stinson  spring  for¬ 
ward  in  his  saddle  as  if  hit.  I  called  to  him: 

“  Harry,  are  you  hurt?” 

“No,  sir,”  he  answered;  “  the  suddenness  made  me 
jump.” 

That  surprise  was  like  a  blow  to  him,  for  during 
the  night  his  old  wound  opened,  and  he  had  a  severe 
hemorrhage  of  the  lungs.  The  next  morning  he  left 
me  for  a  time,  but  afterwards  came  and  went  as  his 
strength  permitted,  though  he  never  saw  a  well  day 
again  till  the  time  of  his  death  soon  after  the  close  of 
the  war. 

As  soon  as  the  skirmishers  were  over  the  bridge, 
they  ran  up  the  slope  from  the  river.  Logan  led  for¬ 
ward  his  entire  corps  and  arranged  it  as  well  as  he 
could  in  the  darkness  upon  the  crest  of  the  ridge — 
Hazen’s  division  to  the  left;  Harrow  on  the  right;  Os- 
terhaus  in  reserve — all  facing  Jonesboro. 

That  night  we  had  nothing  but  skirmishing  to 
worry  us.  The  men  were  indeed  strong  and  hearty, 
though  very  weary  after  their  long  and  hard  march; 
they  worked  the  entire  night  intrenching  by  reliefs, 
to  be  ready  in  the  morning  against  the  attack  which 
we  were  quite  sure  Hardee  would  bring  against  us. 
We  ascertained  that  Hardee  already  had  a  part  of 
S.  D.  Lee’s  troops  in  our  front. 

Kilpatrick,  calling  his  men  back,  had  moved  off  to 
my  right  and  struck  the  enemy’s  advance  in  a  corn¬ 
field.  It  became  necessary  for  me  to  strengthen  his 
hands,  so  I  ordered  Ransom  to  cover  our  right  on  the 
west  side  of  the  Flint  with  infantry  and  artillery,  and 

36 


Battle  of  Jonesboro 


also  to  give  Logan  support  on  the  east  side  upon  Lo¬ 
gan’s  immediate  right. 

Blair,  who  came  up  during  the  night,  did  the  same 
thing  for  our  left  flank,  sending  one  division  across 
the  river,  which  came  into  position  early  in  the  morn¬ 
ing,  considerably  extending  Logan’s  left.  As  soon  as 
these  dispositions  were  made  the  cavalry  was  ordered 
out  farther  to  our  right  as  far  as  Anthony’s  bridge. 

By  these  prompt  movements,  I  succeeded  in  tak¬ 
ing  a  strong  position  very  near  to  Jonesboro,  and  was 
enabled  to  save  life  by  putting  my  command  where 
its  artillery  could  reach  and  sweep  the  Macon  Rail¬ 
road,  which  necessitated  the  enemy  and  not  myself  to 
take  the  initiative  in  the  coming  battle. 

Schofield  had  been  turned  northward  toward  East 
Point,  in  order  to  protect  the  trains,  and  was  for  a 
time  quite  isolated  from  the  rest  of  the  whole  force. 
Thomas  had  fulfilled  his  instructions,  reaching  the 
evening  of  the  30th  a  crossroad  near  Morrow’s  Mill. 

Kilpatrick  lost  one  battery  near  the  river,  in  the 
swampy  ground — for  a  time.  The  enemy  was  thus 
decoyed  by  him  and  his  supports  beyond  the  river, 
for  a  Confederate  division  crossed  over  and  pursued 
him  for  a  short  distance.  Nothing,  even  if  I  had 
planned  it,  could  have  been  better  done  to  keep  an  en¬ 
tire  Confederate  division  away  from  the  main  battle¬ 
field. 

Our  line  followed  substantially  the  crest  of  the 
ridge,  mostly  covered  with  woods,  though  there  were 
some  open  places. 

Kilpatrick  had  some  lively  tilts  with  Jackson’s  cav¬ 
alry  after  crossing  Anthony’s  bridge,  and  both  sides 
kept  up  a  skirmishing  and  some  cannonading  beyond 
our  front.  We  had  expected  Hardee’s  attack  at  dawn. 

37 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

I  bad  been  misinformed  with  reference  to  the  force  al¬ 
ready  at  Jonesboro.  Hardee  waited  for  his  men  to 
close  up. 

It  occurred  to  me  that  I  might  open  the  battle  as 
Grant  did  at  Missionary  Ridge,  by  a  strong  reconnois- 
sance  in  force.  I  so  ordered  it.  Probably  fifteen  min¬ 
utes  before  the  time  set,  the  charging  cries  of  our 
advancing  foes  met  our  ears.  Our  veterans  under¬ 
stood  very  well  what  was  coming,  and  with  confidence 
awaited  the  charge.  The  most  determined  part  of  the 
assault  was  sustained  by  Logan’s  front,  the  enemy  ap¬ 
proaching  to  within  an  average  distance  of  fifty  to 
one  hundred  x^aces. 

They  were  rexmlsed. 

Between  2  and  3  p.m.  again  the  enemy  emerged 
from  the  woods,  coming  obliquely  toward  Corse’s 
front.  One  of  his  brigades  with  Blodgett’s  battery 
fiercely  met  the  Confederates  and  “  sent  them  back.” 
Another  battery  opened,  but  did  not  seem  even  to 
delay  the  enemy  in  its  front.  Corse  restrained  Colo¬ 
nel  Rice’s  command  from  firing  till  the  Confederates 
had  cleared  the  cornfield  near  by,  so  as  to  be  in  plain 
sight.  Then  they  were  met  by  a  terrible  sheet  of  fire 
from  Corse’s  ranks. 

A  portion  of  the  enemy’s  line  broke  and  ran  to  the 
woods,  while  the  rest  in  front  of  Rice’s  men  sought 
shelter  in  a  gully  or  washout  deex>  enough  to  conceal 
a  man,  and  were  thus  temx>orarily  safe.  Corse  there¬ 
upon  sent  the  Sixty-sixtli  Indiana  Regiment  rushing 
down  the  declivity  into  the  gully,  which  drove  them 
out  and  brought  sixty  Confederates  back  as  x^rison- 
ers.  A  part  of  Corse’s  men  at  first  were  without 
any  cover,  as  was  also  the  battery. 

Hazen  (of  Logan)  had  sixteen  regiments  in  line 

38 


Battle  of  Jonesboro 

and  one  in  reserve.  Against  his  front  between  2  and 
3  p.m.  the  Confederates  made  a  vigorous  cannonade. 

In  the  open  spaces  two  full  lines  could  be  observed. 
The  first  charge  was  tremendous,  some  of  the  enemy 
getting  within  Hazen’s  precincts,  and  the  attack  was 
persistently  carried  on  for  three-quarters  of  an  hour. 

But  during  this  time  Hazen’s  parapet  kept  up  a 
fire  against  which  no  men  could  stand.  Here  Hazen’s 
battle  was  decisive. 

On  Harrow’s  front  the  attack  came  a  little  later 
than  on  Hazen’s.  The  artillery  fire  from  the  Confed¬ 
erate  batteries  reached  his  command  from  different 
directions;  then  after  loud  cheering  the  assault  came. 
Harrow  threw  them  into  confusion  with  his  artillery 
and  then  repulsed  their  two  charges.  So  the  first  day 
of  the  Jonesboro  battle  ended. 

It  may  be  wondered  why  I  did  not  immediately 
push  in  my  reserves,  as  more  than  half  my  command 
had  not  been  used  in  the  conflict.  Ambition  would 
have  spurred  me  instantly  to  take  the  offensive,  but 
prudence  and,  I  believe,  good  judgment  led  me  to 
hold  on  till  Sherman  and  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland 
came. 

On  the  morning  of  September  1st,  General  Jeff. 
C.  Davis,  of  Thomas’s  army,  being  at  Renfro  Place, 
moved  up  to  my  left  flank.  He  instantly  pushed  on 
to  Moulker’s  Creek,  where  he  came  upon  my  pickets. 
He  then  deployed  to  my  left,  engaged  the  enemy  vig¬ 
orously,  and  gallantly  charged  their  works,  breaking 
through  in  many  places,  capturing  hundreds  of  pris¬ 
oners  and  some  batteries  and  also  some  trophies,  mak¬ 
ing  our  victory  complete. 

Thomas  and  Sherman  were  together,  not  far  from 
Davis’s  right  flank.  As  soon  as  Davis’s  attack  was 

39 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

finished,  Sherman  directed  me  to  send  Blair’s  corps 
below  Jonesboro  and  I  expected  him  to  cross  the  Flint 
as  Kilpatrick  had  done  the  day  before,  but  being  de¬ 
layed  by  the  long  march  he  arrived  at  so  late  an  hour 
that  the  enemy  was  able  to  resist  him  at  the  bridge. 

Sherman  desired  Thomas  to  get  beyond  Hardee’s 
right  flank  and  so  cut  off  his  retreat;  but  night  came 
on  and  Hardee  escaped. 


CHAPTEE  XXXVIII 


BATTLE  OF  LOVE  JOY’S  STATION  AND  CAPTURE  OF 

ATLANTA 

HOOD  now,  doubtless  with  intense  reluctance,  evac¬ 
uated  Atlanta,  and  swinging  around  to  the  east 
by  the  way  of  McDonough,  succeeded  by  the  help  of 
S.  D.  Lee’s  corps  in  forming  junction  with  Hardee  at 
Lovejoy,  the  point  to  which  Hardee  had  retired  during 
the  night  of  September  1st.  Slocum,  commanding 
the  Twentieth  Corps  at  the  Chattahoochee  bridge, 
hearing  the  explosions  occasioned  by  Hood’s  at¬ 
tempted  destruction  of  his  depots  and  loaded  trains, 
suspected  what  was  going  on;  and  so  marched  out  to 
take  possession  of  the  city.  During  the  night  Sher¬ 
man  had  heard  the  series  of  explosions  in  the  far  dis¬ 
tance.  He  questioned  an  inhabitant  about  them,  who 
declared  that  they  were  the  same  as  in  the  previous 
battles  to  which  he  had  listened. 

Sherman,  at  first,  feared  that  Slocum  had  ap¬ 
proached  the  city,  and  perhaps  was  having  an  engage¬ 
ment  with  Hood’s  rear  guard. 

The  morning  of  September  2d  our  combined 
forces  followed  Hardee’s  movement  as  far  as  Love- 
joy’s  Station.  We  had  just  reached  that  place  when 
Sherman  received  a  note  from  Slocum,  headed  “  At¬ 
lanta.”  Hood  had  gone,  having  destroyed  his  depots, 
trains,  and  such  supplies  as  he  could  not  carry  off. 
The  quantities  of  ammunition  stored  there,  of  course, 

41 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

occasioned  the  heaviest  explosions.  He  had  hardly 
evacuated  the  city  before  Slocum  marched  in. 

The  first  dispatch  to  Washington  was  from  Slocum, 
September  2d,  as  follows: 

General  Sherman  has  taken  Atlanta.  The  Twentieth  Corps 
occupies  the  city.  The  main  army  is  on  the  Macon  road,  near 
East  Point.  A  battle  was  fought  near  that  point,  in  which 
General  Sherman  was  successful.  Particulars  not  known. 

This  was  followed  by  a  dispatch  the  next  day  from 
Sherman  to  Halleck.  Here  is  an  extract: 

Hood,  at  Atlanta,  finding  me  on  his  road,  the  only  one  that 
could  supply  him,  and  between  him  and  a  considerable  part  of 
his  army,  blew  up  his  magazines  in  Atlanta  and  left  in  the  night¬ 
time,  when  the  Twentieth  Corps,  General  Slocum,  took  posses¬ 
sion  of  the  place.  So  Atlanta  is  ours  and  fairly  won. 

To  which  President  Lincoln  replied: 

The  National  thanks  are  rendered  by  the  President  to  Major 
General  W.  T.  Sherman  and  the  gallant  officers  and  soldiers 
of  his  command  before  Atlanta,  for  the  distinguished  ability 
and  perseverance  displayed  in  the  campaign  in  Georgia,  which, 
under  Divine  power,  has  resulted  in  the  capture  of  Atlanta. 

We  came  upon  Hardee’s  skirmishers,  where  he  was 
waiting  for  us,  near  Lovejoy’s;  the  approaches  to  his 
position  were  exceedingly  difficult;  yet,  as  rapidly  as 
possible,  my  command  was  extended  into  line,  the  Fif¬ 
teenth  Corps  on  the  left,  the  Seventeenth  on  the  right, 
while  the  Sixteenth  was  held  in  reserve. 

By  strengthening  our  skirmish  line  and  pressing  it 
along  from  right  to  left  Hardee’s  gave  back,  until  by 
our  sudden  dash  a  favorable  height  of  great  impor¬ 
tance  to  us  was  seized  and  firmly  held.  And  then  by 

42 


Battle  of  Love  joy’s  Station 

the  usual  processes  our  main  lines  were  moved  nearer 
and  nearer  to  the  Confederate  works,  which,  strange 
to  say,  were  as  well  constructed  and  as  strong  as  if  the 
Confederates  had  had  a  week  to  prepare  them. 

It  was  between  three  and  four  in  the  afternoon 
when  I  was  ready  to  move  forward  to  the  assault.  At 
that  hour  I  received  orders  from  Sherman  not  to  take 
the  offensive,  but  wait  where  I  was  for  the  present. 

General  Thomas  had  also  moved  one  corps  forward 
from  Jonesboro  (Stanley’s).  He  marched  along  the 
east  side  of  the  railroad.  He  had  left  Davis’s  corps 
at  Jonesboro  to  gather  up  the  captured  property,  and 
to  care  for  the  wounded  and  bury  the  dead.  Stanley 
struck  the  enemy’s  lines  about  midday,  and  he  had  the 
same  difficulty  in  developing  the  lines,  in  making  his 
approaches  to  the  enemy’s  works,  that  I  had  had;  so 
that  it  was  near  dark  when  he  was  ready  to  make  an 
attack.  Thomas,  probably  not  aware  of  my  orders, 
pushed  his  troops  well  forward  and  had  a  lively 
combat. 

About  half  an  hour  later  one  of  Stanley’s  divisions 
made  an  endeavor  to  carry  the  enemy’s  works  but  did 
not  succeed. 

After  this  partial  attack,  a  little  later  in  the  day, 
Schofield’s  army  came  up  to  support  the  left  of 
Thomas.  The  effort  resulted  in  about  100  prisoners, 
several  of  whom  were  commissioned  officers. 

Now  we  notice  that  from  this  time  on,  the  two 
armies  were  facing  each  other,  and  each  commander 
had  full  purpose  to  do  nothing  which  would  bring 
on  a  general  action,  though,  as  we  were  very  near 
together,  we  had  each  day  upon  the  skirmish  line  many 
men  wounded  and  some  killed.  We  thus  watched 
each  other  and  skirmished  for  four  days. 

43 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

This  is  all  there  was  of  the  affair  at  Love  joy’s 
Station,  and  indeed  the  time  had  come  for  a  rest  and 
recruitment  of  the  troops.  Our  armies  remained 
there  until  the  morning  of  September  7th.  Sherman 
says :  “  After  due  reflection  I  resolved  not  to  attempt 
at  this  time  a  further  pursuit  of  Hood’s  army,  but 
slowly  and  deliberately  to  move  back  and  occupy  At¬ 
lanta,  enjoy  a  short  period  of  rest,  and  think  awhile 
over  the  next  step  required  in  the  progress  of  events.” 
The  Army  of  the  Cumberland  led  the  return.  It  was, 
after  the  march,  grouped  in  and  about  Atlanta.  With 
the  Army  of  the  Tennessee  I  followed,  and  took  up  a 
defensive  camp  at  East  Point,  between  six  and  seven 
miles  south  of  Atlanta;  while  the  Army  of  the  Ohio 
covered  our  eastern  approaches  by  camping  near 
Decatur. 

The  campaign  had  already  been  a  long  and  costly 
one  since  its  beginning,  May  6tli,  at  Tunnel  Hill,  near 
Dalton.  According  to  the  reports  which  Sherman 
gathered,  the  aggregate  loss  up  to  that  time  to  the 
Confederates  was  nearly  35,000  men,  but  he  remem¬ 
bered  that  his  own  aggregate  was  not  much  less,  being 
in  the  neighborhood  of  35,000.  His  command  had  been 
for  the  most  part  under  fire  for  113  days,  including 
three  days’  rest  at  the  Etowah. 

In  my  letters  home  I  wrote :  “  Atlanta  is  a  hand¬ 
some  place,  with  wide  streets,  and  houses  much  scat¬ 
tered.  I  have  my  army  to  refit  and  reorganize. 

“  General  Sherman  asked  me  lately  if  I  wanted 
a  brigadiersliip  in  the  regular  army;  he  said  I  must 
try  for  one.  I  told  him  no,  but  if  it  were  offered  me 
for  my  services,  if  they  were  deemed  of  sufficient  im¬ 
portance  to  warrant  it,  I  should  consider  it  a  high 
compliment,  but  I  should  not  ask  for  it.” 

44 


Battle  of  Love  joy’s  Station 

In  order  to  present  an  evidence  of  the  feeling  after 
Sherman’s  taking  Atlanta  in  New  England,  I  will  in¬ 
troduce  a  few  impressions  from  a  letter  of  my  uncle 
Ensign  Otis,  Esq.,  of  Leeds,  Maine,  as  follows: 

My  Dear  Nephew:  We  have  much  solicitude  for  you,  Gen¬ 
eral  Sherman,  and  that  part  of  his  army  with  him.  Great  in¬ 
terest  is  manifested  by  the  whole  community.  .  .  . 

The  result  of  the  election,  the  tone  of  the  public  press,  and  the 
satisfied  demeanor  of  almost  the  entire  people  have  inspired  me 
with  a  confidence  in  our  Government  and  institutions  which 
I  never  before  had.  Surely  our  chastening  has  not  been 
in  vain.  Is  not  the  time  of  our  deliverance  at  hand?  Grat¬ 
itude  and  humility,  in  view  of  our  Nation,  seem  to  be  mani¬ 
fested. 

We  are  sending  our  vegetables  to  the  Second  Maine  Cavalry. 
Some  of  the  boys  are  at  home  on  a  furlough.  Warren  (Colonel 
E.  W.  Woodman)  is  commander  of  the  regiment.  Our  boy  who 
went  in  the  Thirtieth  Maine  (the  wrriter,  being  an  old  veteran 
of  1812,  sent  a  substitute)  wrrites  often.  He  has  been  uni¬ 
formly  well,  and  keeps  us  posted  in  all  that  concerns  that 
regiment  in  Sheridan's  army.  Our  prayers,  our  love,  and 
affection  are  for  you  and  Charles  (then  Lieutenant  Colonel  C. 
H.  Howard). 

Then  from  mine: 

Just  before  this  I  had  received  newrs  of  the  death  of  my  step¬ 
father,  Colonel  Gilmore,  at  Leeds,  Maine,  wThom  I  greatly  es¬ 
teemed  and  loved.  Thinking  of  him  at  this  time,  I  put  down 
a  thought  concerning  George  H.  Thomas. 

General  Thomas's  characteristics  are  much  like  those  of  my 
father.  While  I  was  under  his  command  he  placed  confidence 
in  me,  and  never  changed  it.  Quiet,  manly,  almost  stern 
in  his  deportment,  an  honest  man,  I  trusted  him.  ...  I  am 
all  the  while  hoping  that  peace  is  not  far  distant.  There  is 
a  great  Union  sentiment  in  Georgia,  but  every  mouth  has  been 

45 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

shut  for  a  long  time  by  a  fearful  tyranny.  I  believe  Grant  will 
accomplish  his  part  of  the  operation  of  the  campaign  before 
winter.  If  he  succeeds,  matters  will  put  on  a  different  com¬ 
plexion.  At  present  it  is  hard  for  me  to  anticipate  where  I 
shall  be  or  wrhat  I  shall  do.  .  .  . 

If  Sherman  makes  a  fall  and  winter  campaign,  I  shall  doubt¬ 
less  command  one  of  the  columns  under  him. 

I  also  wrote  of  my  neighborhood :  “  I  have  now 
three  little  visitors — Flora  Niles,  a  pretty  little  lady, 
one  year  smaller  than  our  Grace;  Spurgeon  Sylvey 
and  Jerome  Sylvey,  two  boys,  twins,  six  years  old. 
They  are  children  of  people  who  were  born  in  the 
North.  Flora  talks  very  freely  and  prettily,  and  is 
a  nice  little  lady.  We  encamped  on  one  of  her  fa¬ 
ther’s  farms  near  Jonesboro,  and  brought  him,  the 
mother,  and  Flora  to  this  place  in  an  ambulance.  We 
gave  them  empty  wagons  in  which  to  bring  their 
goods  and  chattels.  He  and  his  wife  were  from  New 
Hampshire  originally.  General  Sherman  is  banishing 
all  the  people  from  Atlanta,  north  or  south,  as  they 
may  elect.” 

In  this  private  correspondence,  which  freshens 
one’s  recollection,  I  find  that  my  corps  commanders, 
Blair  and  Logan,  during  this  rest,  had  been  granted 
a  leave.  In  fact,  Logan  did  not  return  to  us  till  we 
reached  Savannah,  but  Blair  was  able  to  join  me. 
One  of  my  divisions,  General  Corse’s,  was  sent  back 
to  Rome  upon  the  reports  of  the  work  of  the  Con¬ 
federate  cavalry  in  Tennessee  under  Forrest. 

Another  division,  General  John  F.  Smith’s,  of  Lo¬ 
gan’s  corps,  had  its  headquarters  back  at  Cartersville, 
Smith  commanding.  About  this  time  (September 
29th),  also,  Thomas  went  to  Chattanooga  and  as  far  as 
Nashville,  while  (October  3d)  Schofield  found  his 

46 


Battle  of  Love  joy’s  Station 

way,  first  to  Knoxville,  to  attend  to  some  official  mat¬ 
ters  there,  and  thence  to  Chattanooga. 

All  these  personal  movements  naturally  affected 
me,  as  I  was  inclined  to  be  homesick  during  every 
lengthy  period  of  rest.  I  went  to  Atlanta  toward  the 
latter  part  of  the  month  of  September  and  had  a  good 
talk  with  Sherman.  He  would  not  listen  to  my  going 
either  on  inspection  duty  to  other  parts  of  my  de¬ 
partment,  nor  to  my  making  a  brief  visit  to  any  point 
away  from  Atlanta.  “  No,  Howard,”  he  said,  “  we 
don’t  know  what  the  enemy  now  any  day  may  under¬ 
take.”  In  fact,  he  had  already  had  information  that 
Hood  was  changing  the  position  of  his  army  from  the 
vicinity  of  Lovejoy’s  Station  westward  to  a  position 
somewhere  near  Blue  Mountain,  Hood’s  headquarters 
to  be  at  Palmetto  Station,  on  the  West  Point  Railroad. 

Arriving  at  that  road,  the  Confederate  army  took 
position  with  the  left  touching  the  Chattahoochee 
River,  and  covering  the  West  Point  road,  where  it  re¬ 
mained  several  days  to  allow  the  accumulation  of  sup¬ 
plies  at  “  Blue  Mountain,”  and  secure  a  sufficiency  with 
which  to  continue  this  movement.  The  precise  situ¬ 
ation  of  this  “  Blue  Mountain  ”  is  not  clear,  but  prob¬ 
ably  it  was  a  railway  station  in  Alabama  on  Hood’s 
flank  after  he  had  reached  his  new  position. 

The  cavalry  raider,  General  Wheeler,  had  been 
sent  early  in  September  to  go  north  of  the  Tennessee 
to  do  what  he  could  to  cut  off  Sherman’s  supplies  and 
destroy  his  communications ;  so  General  Hood  re¬ 
called  him. 

That  chassez  of  the  Confederate  army  to  the  left 
to  touch  the  Chattahoochee  was  unique..  A  Confeder¬ 
ate  cavalry  division  beyond  that  river  seems  to  have 
given  some  uneasiness  in  both  commands  on  account 

47 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

of  a  truce  entered  into  between  Hood  and  Sherman; 
but  the  truce  was  interpreted  by  Hood  to  be  local,  and 
to  apply  only  to  the  roads  leading  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
Eough  and  Ready  Station. 

The  truce  was  established  between  the  two  armies 
with  a  view  to  exchange  prisoners  and  to  render  it 
easier  for  the  people  of  Atlanta  to  go  southward 
through  the  double  lines  without  interruption.  Sher¬ 
man  called  it  a  neutral  camp  at  Rough  and  Ready  Sta¬ 
tion,  where  he  sent  Colonel  Willard  Warner,  of  his 
staff,  with  a  guard  of  100  men,  and  Hood  sent  there 
also  Major  Wm.  Clare,  inspector  general,  from  his 
staff  with  100  Confederates.  It  was  remarkable  how 
friendly  the  two  detachments  came  to  be  to  each  other, 
and  doubtless  they  were  sorry  when  the  time  came  for 
them  to  return  to  posts  of  active  hostility. 

President  Davis’s  visit  to  Hood’s  army  was  an  in¬ 
teresting  event.  General  Sherman  detected  his  pres¬ 
ence  in  Georgia,  and  telegraphed  the  news  to  Wash¬ 
ington  as  early  as  September  25tli.  The  Confederate 
record  at  Hood’s  headquarters  reads : 

President  Davis,  accompanied  by  two  of  his  aids-de-camp,  • 
arrived  at  these  headquarters  at  about  3  p.m.,  September  26th. 
The  President  and  General  Hood,  with  their  respective  staffs, 
rode  out  to  the  front  to-day,  and  were  enthusiastically  re¬ 
ceived  by  the  troops.  At  8  p.m.  the  President  was  surrounded 
by  the  Twentieth  Louisiana,  and  being  called  upon  he  delivered 
a  short  and  spirited  speech. 

The  assemblage  manifested  by  their  loud  and  continued 
cheers  that  they  would  support  him.  General  Hood  was  called 
upon  and  delivered  a  short  address  to  the  point.  Speeches  were 
made  by  General  Howell  Cobb  and  Governor  Harris.  Septem¬ 
ber  27th  the  President  and  suite  left  at  6  p.m.  for  Montgomery. 
September  28th,  by  the  order  of  President  Davis,  Lieutenant 

48 


Battle  of  Love  joy’s  Station 

General  Hardee  was  relieved  of  duty  in  this  army  and  depart¬ 
ment  and  assigned  to  the  Department  of  South  Carolina  and 
Florida. 

Perhaps  the  interval  of  hard  campaigning  and  con¬ 
tinuous  fighting  was  never  more  acceptable  and  enjoy¬ 
able  than  during  our  sojourn  about  Atlanta.  Supplies 
came  in  to  refresh  our  men.  We  enjoyed  most  hav¬ 
ing  the  immense  mail  bags  come  forward.  We  could 
now  have  time  to  read  our  letters  and  reply  to  them. 
There  was  joy,  great  joy,  throughout  the  land,  and, 
of  course,  its  influence  found  its  way  through  the  mail 
to  every  tent. 

But  we  must  remember  that  in  war  the  mourning 
is  close  to  the  rejoicing.  So  many  had  been  killed, 
many  more  disabled  for  life,  and  others  patiently  en¬ 
during  their  suffering  till  time  and  good  nursing 
should  bring  them  to  health  again.  Those  in  the  hos¬ 
pitals  were  not  forgotten  by  the  Christian  and  Sani¬ 
tary  Commissions.  At  this  time  those  who  had  al¬ 
ready  recovered  from  their  wounds,  or  who  had  been 
prisoners  and  exchanged,  or  who  came  to  the  field  for 
the  first  time  as  recruits,  joined  my  army  at  East 
Point. 

Sherman  personally  had  the  hardest  time.  He 
was  determined  to  turn  Atlanta  into  “  a  purely  mili¬ 
tary  garrison  or  depot,  with  no  civil  population  to  in¬ 
fluence  military  measures.”  This  determination  met 
with  strenuous  opposition.  Sherman’s  single  expres¬ 
sion,  which  he  telegraphed  to  Halleck,  gives  a  good 
idea  of  the  state  of  things  in  the  captured  city  just 
then : 

If  the  people  raise  a  howl  against  my  barbarity  and  cruelty, 
I  will  answer  that  war  is  war,  and  not  popularity  seeking.  If 
they  want  peace,  they  and  their  relatives  must  stop  the  wTar. 

49 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

It  was  at  this  time  that  the  remarkable,  pungent, 
incisive  correspondence  was  carried  on  between  Sher¬ 
man  and  Hood.  That  correspondence  showed  Sher¬ 
man  master  of  the  rules  of  war  and  of  the  laws  of 
nations.  His  course  undoubtedly  caused  great  hard¬ 
ship,  but  probably  in  the  end  was  the  best  for  all  con¬ 
cerned.  I  refer  to  his  action  in  sending  away  from 
Atlanta  the  bulk  of  the  residents,  giving  them  the  op¬ 
tion  to  go  north  or  south,  according  as  “  their  inter¬ 
ests  or  feelings  dictated.” 

Sherman  also  had  trouble  to  keep  army  traders 
within  bounds;  such  vast  numbers  desired  to  come  to 
the  front  with  their  wares.  The  single  line  of  rail¬ 
road,  now  140  miles  longer  than  at  the  beginning  of 
the  campaign,  had  to  be  defended  against  too  many 
superfluities.  We  said:  “  Necessities  first,  then  com¬ 
forts  !  ”  but  nothing  simply  to  gratify  the  eager  desire 
of  trading  men  to  make  money  was  allowed  to  come 
over  the  lines. 

One  day  a  courteous  gentleman  gave  Sherman  a 
superb  box  of  cigars,  and  to  each  army  commander  he 
presented  something,  my  share  being  some  table  fur¬ 
niture. 

Sherman  was  greatly  pleased  and  expressed  his 
gratitude  in  unusual  terms.  “You  could  not  have 
pleased  me  more,”  he  said.  Two  days  afterwards 
the  same  gentleman  visited  Sherman  again  at  his 
Atlanta  home  and  asked  for  a  permit  to  bring  sut¬ 
ler’s  stores  from  Nashville  to  the  front.  Several 
officers  were  present.  Sherman  then  displayed  the 
terrible  anger  that  was  in  him.  “  Leave,  sir !  leave 
at  once,  you  scoundrel!  Would  you  bribe  me?” 
he  said.  The  trader  did  not  wait  for  a  blow  but 
rushed  out  in  hot  haste.  Thus  Sherman  deliv- 

50 


Battle  of  Love  joy’s  Station 

ered  himself  and  the  other  commanders  from  temp¬ 
tation. 

But  what,  of  course,  taxed  his  mind  most  was  the 
next  step  to  be  taken.  He  corresponded  volumi¬ 
nously  with  Grant  and  Halleck;  he  consulted  freely 
with  his  corps  and  army  commanders ;  he  reorganized 
his  forces  with  a  view  to  efficiency.  But  his  main 
plan  for  subsequent  operations  was  early  formed  in 
his  own  mind;  yet  it  took  him  some  time  to  work  out 
the  details.  This  plan  covered  all  that  may  be  now 
condensed  into  one  expression — “  the  march  from  At¬ 
lanta  to  the  sea.” 

When  his  plan  was  finally  settled,  Thomas  was 
to  go  back  to  Nashville;  Schofield  and  Stanley  with 
the  Fourth  and  Twenty-third  Corps  to  follow  him. 
Besides  these  Thomas  was  to  have  control  of  all 
forces  which  he  might  need  in  my  department  (of 
the  Tennessee),  the  Department  of  the  Cumberland 
and  the  Ohio — all  not  immediately  with  Sherman. 

I  consolidated  the  troops  then  with  me  into  two 
corps — Blair’s  of  three  divisions  and  Logan’s  of  four 
divisions — for  Sherman’s  right  wing,  still  called  the 
Army  of  the  Tennessee.  All  the  rest  of  my  men  on 
the  Mississippi  constituted  the  new  Sixteenth  Corps 
— to  remain  subject  to  Thomas’s  call.  Slocum  took 
two  corps,  Davis’s  (the  Fourteenth)  and  Williams’s 
(the  Twentieth),  and  Sherman  designated  this  force 
“  the  Army  of  Georgia.”  This  was  Sherman’s  left 
wing.  Kilpatrick  drew  out  from  all  our  cavalry  a 
body  of  5,000  horse  for  the  march.  I  had  33,000 
men,  Slocum  30,000,  and  Kilpatrick  5,000 — total,  68,- 
000.  This  was  substantially  Sherman’s  field  force  for 
the  great  march. 


51 


IjlBKARY  - - 

UfllVWSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 


CHAPTER  XXXIX 


GENERAL  HOODS  NORTHWARD  MARCH;  SHERMAN  IN 
PURSUIT;  BATTLE  OF  ALLATOONA 

TOURING  our  stay  at  Atlanta  one  very  important 
'  work  was  accomplished  besides  the  reviewing  of 
the  two  armies  for  what  General  Sherman  called  “  the 
next  move.”  It  was  the  exchange  of  prisoners.  That 
good  work  went  bravely  on,  owing  to  the  friendly  re¬ 
lations  between  the  detachments  that  both  armies  sent 
to  the  neutral  ground.  Between  2,000  and  3,000  poor 
fellows  were  saved  from  spending  months  in  either 
Northern  or  Southern  prisons.  The  prison  life  dur¬ 
ing  our  war,  particularly  at  Libby  and  at  Anderson- 
ville,  was  the  most  afflicting  and  the  hardest  for  men 
who  suffered  it  and  lived  to  forget  or  forgive.  It  al¬ 
ways  gratified  us  beyond  measure  when  we  could 
make  early  exchanges  of  our  men  before  they  were 
weakened  or  disabled  by  the  sufferings  to  which  they 
were  almost  uniformly  subjected. 

It  was  always  a  very  sore  and  perplexing  thing 
to  all  army  commanders  in  the  field  to  deal  with  the 
subject  of  exchanges.  If  we  should  accept  all  the 
apologies  of  Mr.  Davis,  and  the  other  Confederate  of¬ 
ficials  as  literally  true,  viz.,  that  the  neighborhood  of 
the  worst  prisons  were  greatly  impoverished  by  the 
operations  of  the  war;  that  prisoners  came  in  in 
floods,  so  that  it  was  difficult  to  provide  for  them 

52 


General  Hood’s  Northward  March 

abundantly  or  safely ;  and  that  the  United  States  Gov¬ 
ernment  was  very  dilatory  and,  in  fact,  very  reluctant 
to  make  exchanges ;  that  it  was  a  long  struggle  before 
the  Confederates  had  belligerent  rights  at  all,  and 
till  then  neither  one  side  nor  the  other  conformed  to 
the  recognized  rights  and  humanities  of  war  between 
nations;  still,  admitting  all  this  to  be  a  reasonable 
statement  of  the  case,  the  result  of  it  reduced  our  sol¬ 
diers  confined  in  prisons  and  pens  like  that  at  Ander- 
sonville  to  great  extremes  of  illness  and  weakness, 
often  to  mere  skeletons,  and  caused  the  untimely 
death  of  thousands. 

The  fact  which  troubled  me  more  than  any  other 
one  thing — over  and  beyond  my  feeling  of  indignation 
and  sorrow  over  the  loss  and  the  suffering — was  that 
on  the  eve  of  the  battle,  after  the  exchange  began  to 
operate,  sometimes  10,000  well  men,  strong  and  hardy, 
could  be  put  in  front  of  us,  while  our  own  proportional 
return  of  strong  men  would  be  less  than  1,000. 

In  behalf  of  our  men  we  could  not  help  claiming 
that  it  was  the  plain  duty  of  Confederate  commanders 
to  parole  the  prisoners  which  they  took,  unless  they 
were  able  to  afford  them  proper,  ample,  and  con¬ 
venient  shelter,  and  good,  wholesome  food  equivalent 
to  a  soldier’s  rations.  Indeed,  whether  the  United 
States  ever  did  maltreat  its  prisoners  or  not,  it  had 
long  been  contrary  to  the  laws  of  nations  to  cripple 
an  enemy  by  the  disabling,  starving,  or  killing  of 
prisoners  of  war.  War  is  bad  enough,  but  cruelty  to 
prisoners  belongs  to  the  dark  ages  and  to  egregious 
barbarism. 

Those  who  belonged  to  Sherman’s  army  did  not 
have  much  difficulty  with  those  opposed  to  us  con¬ 
cerning  exchanges,  yet  we  had  but  few  opportunities 

53 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

to  make  them.  The  general  cartel  on  which  we  acted 
was  established  in  1862. 

The  first  item  was:  All  prisoners  captured  by 
either  party  should  be  paroled  and  delivered  at  cer¬ 
tain  points  specified  within  ten  days  after  their  cap¬ 
ture,  or  as  soon  thereafter  as  practicable.  Second: 
Commanding  general  after  a  battle,  on  the  battle¬ 
field  might  parole  their  prisoners  by  agreement. 
Third:  No  other  paroles  were  valid;  for  example,  if 
a  partisan  command  or  a  guerrilla  band  captured  a 
foraging  party,  and  attempted  to  parole  those  who 
constituted  the  party,  such  paroles  would  not  hold. 
In  such  cases  the  cartel  would  not  be  violated  by 
ordering  those  composing  the  party  immediately  back 
to  service. 

Several  individual  cases  arose  which  gave  us  much 
annoyance:  for  example,  a  Confederate  major,  Arm- 
esy,  from  West  Virginia,  went  back  to  his  State,  now 
within  our  lines,  and  began  quietly  to  recruit  soldiers 
for  the  Confederate  army.  While  engaged  in  this 
secret  business  he  was  caught  and  tried  by  court- 
martial.  The  court,  treating  him  as  a  spy,  con¬ 
demned  him  to  be  hanged. 

A  little  later  Major  Goff,  from  West  Virginia,  was 
captured  by  the  Confederates  as  a  prisoner  of  war 
and  taken  to  Libby  Prison.  When  Armesy’s  case  be¬ 
came  known  at  Richmond,  Goff  was  sent  from  Libby 
to  Salisbury,  N.  C.,  and  closely  confined  for  many 
months.  Goff  belonged  to  a  strong  Union  family,  and 
was  held  as  a  hostage  for  the  life  of  Armesy. 

Another  difficulty  arose  which  affected  us  more  di¬ 
rectly.  It  was  that  the  officers  in  command  of  negro 
troops  received  special  contumely  and  ill  treatment. 
It  took  strong  measures  of  retaliation  to  protect  such 

54 


General  Hood’s  Northward  March 


officers  from  indignities  perpetrated  upon  them  by 
Confederate  authorities  high  in  position.  It  is  incon¬ 
ceivable  why  the  exchange  of  General  Milroy’s  officers 
was  refused  by  the  Confederates,  for  Milroy  was  one 
of  the  most  honorable  and  law-abiding  gentlemen. 
The  attempt  to  prevent  the  exchange  of  the  gallant 
Colonel  A.  D.  Streight  and  his  officers  was  extraor¬ 
dinary;  and  more  marvelous  still,  the  effort  to  give 
them  up  to  the  Governor  of  Alabama  for  trial  on  the 
charge  of  “  negro  stealing.” 

Another  unjustifiable  act  I  have  never  seen  de¬ 
fended  was  the  returning  of  the  Vicksburg  prisoners 
to  duty,  declaring  them  exchanged  without  a  proper 
quid  pro  quo. 

All  these  violations  of  the  cartel  on  the  Con¬ 
federate  side  worked  badly  for  our  poor  Union  sol¬ 
diers,  who  in  large  numbers  were  enduring  hardships 
equal  to  those  inflicted  upon  many  of  our  prisoners  of 
war  in  the  famous  British  prison  ships  during  our 
Revolution. 

The  published  accounts  of  what  each  army  was 
doing  while  encamped,  the  one  about  Atlanta,  and  the 
other  at  first  in  the  vicinity  of  Lovejoy’s  Station,  and 
later  near  Palmetto  and  the  Chattahoochee,  are  some¬ 
what  fragmentary,  but  they  indicate  something  of  the 
trying  situation. 

General  Sherman  was  constantly  meditating  some¬ 
thing  for  the  future.  That  something  was  generally 
revolving  upon  a  universal  pivot,  or  hinging  upon 
what  Hood  might  do. 

September  29,  1864,  Hood  left  his  position  near 
Palmetto,  Ga.,  putting  Brigadier  General  Iverson 
with  his  command  to  watch  and  harass  whatever 
Sherman  might  keep  in  the  neighborhood  of  Atlanta. 

55 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

Hood  crossed  the  Chattahoochee,  with  Jackson’s  cav¬ 
alry  in  advance.  He  had  a  pontoon  bridge  at  Phil¬ 
lips’  Ferry,  near  that  village  which  bears  the  name  of 
Pumpkintown.  There  was  a  trestle  bridge  farther 
down  the  Chattahoochee,  at  Moore’s  Ferry,  recently 
constructed.  Over  it  he  drew  the  supplies  of  his 
army.  He  reached  Lost  Mountain  and  was  estab¬ 
lished  there  October  3d. 

Hood  heard  that  we  had  an  extensive  subdepot  at 
Allatoona  Pass,  so  he  directed  Lieutenant  General 
Stewart  to  cross  a  bridge  over  the  Etowah  River  not 
far  north  of  Allatoona  and  have  it  broken  up;  also 
to  send  one  of  his  divisions  to  disable  the  railroad 
about  Allatoona,  and,  if  possible,  seize  and  destroy 
the  depot;  he  sent  French’s  division  for  this  work. 
The  morning  of  October  5th  French  moved  up  in  sight 
of  the  garrison,  deployed  his  command,  and  very  soon 
ran  over  the  outer  lines  of  its  advance  forces.  One 
thing  only  was  left  which  French  very  much  coveted: 
that  was  the  field  works,  pretty  well  constructed,  with 
auxiliary  outworks,  which  the  Union  soldiers  still 
held  and  were  defending  with  extraordinary  ob¬ 
stinacy.  If  this  redoubt  could  be  taken,  what  a  clean 
sweep  there  would  be  of  Sherman’s  line  of  communi¬ 
cations  between  the  Chattahoochee  Bridge  and  the 
crossing  of  the  Etowah. 

Sherman’s  force  in  and  about  Atlanta  now  num¬ 
bered  little  over  60,000. 

General  Elliott  then  commanded  the  cavalry — two 
small  divisions  under  Kilpatrick  and  Garrard.  I 
have  a  copy  of  a  letter  General  Sherman  wrote,  which 
I  have  not  seen  in  print — a  sort  of  offhand  communi¬ 
cation,  such  as  flew  from  his  pen  or  pencil  in  times 
of  emergency: 


56 


General  Hood’s  Northward  March 


Headquarters  Military  Division 
of  the  Mississippi,  October  2,  1864. 

General  Davis:  Communicate  with  Howard,  and  be  pre¬ 
pared  to  send  into  Atlanta  all  your  traps  and  to  move  with  ten 
days’  rations  toward  Marietta  or  to  Fairburn,  as  the  case  may 
call  for;  and  if  Hood  has  crossed  the  Chattahoochee  with  two 
corps  to  take  our  road,  and  has  left  one  corps  on  this  side 
near  Campbelton,  we  should  interpose. 

W.  T.  Sherman, 

Major  General  Commanding. 

Official:  A.  C.  McClurg,  A.  A.  G. 

As  soon  as  Sherman  found  out  what  Hood  was 
undertaking,  he  set  his  whole  force  in  motion  north¬ 
ward,  except  Slocum,  with  his  Twentieth  Corps,  who 
was  left  back  to  keep  Atlanta  for  our  return.  Sher¬ 
man’s  first  surmise  of  only  two  Confederate  corps  was 
incorrect,  for  Stewart’s,  Cheatham’s,  and  Stephen  D. 
Lee’s  corps  were  all  included  in  the  big  northward 
raid. 

After  Stewart  had  captured  some  garrisons  he 
drew  back  to  Hood,  near  Lost  Mountain.  Now  we 
commenced  the  pursuit  in  earnest  from  Atlanta  the 
morning  of  October  3d.  By  the  5th  we  had  reached 
the  vicinity  of  the  battlefield,  Kenesaw  Mountain. 

As  soon  as  Sherman  heard  that  a  division  of  the 
enemy  had  been  seen  marching  northward  not  far 
from  the  railroad  line  he  divined  that  the  subdepot 
at  Allatoona  Pass  was  the  coveted  prize.  This  oc¬ 
curred  to  him  before  he  had  passed  Vining’s  Station. 
On  account  of  the  breakup  of  the  railroad  and  tele¬ 
graph  lines  by  Hood’s  men,  we  were  obliged  to  depend 
upon  day  and  night  signaling. 

Sherman  sent  one  dispatch  from  Vining’s  to  the 
top  of  Kenesaw,  which  was  repeated  from  Kenesaw 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

to  Allatoona  Pass.  This  dispatch  was  then  tele¬ 
graphed  to  General  J.  M.  Corse,  at  Rome,  Ga.  It  was 
repeated  by  Vandever,  commanding  near  Kenesaw. 
But,  in  fact,  there  were  two  dispatches,  the  first, 
to  wit: 

Commanding  Officers,  Allatoona,  Kingston,  and  Rome: 
The  enemy  moving  on  Allatoona,  thence  to  Rome. 

Sherman. 


Second  dispatch: 

General  Corse,  Rome:  Sherman  directs  you  to  march  for¬ 
ward  and  join  Smith's  division  with  your  entire  command,  using 
cars,  if  to  be  had,  and  burn  provisions  rather  than  lose  them. 

[Signed]  Vandever, 

General. 

Corse’s  answering  dispatch  to  Smith,  at  Carters- 
ville,  of  the  same  date,  October  4th,  says : 

General:  My  last  information  is  that  a  large  force  is  moving 
on  Allatoona.  In  accordance  with  General  Sherman's  instruc¬ 
tions,  I  will  move  my  entire  command  to  Cartersville  and  unite 
with  General  Raum  in  attacking  the  enemy  at  Allatoona  direct. 

J.  M.  Corse, 
Brigadier  General. 

Corse  was  quick  of  apprehension  and  always  ready 
for  action.  Taking  all  the  troops  he  could  make  im¬ 
mediately  available,  and  having  a  broken  railroad 
quickly  repaired,  he  hurried  on  in  the  night  of  the  4th 
to  reach  Allatoona  by  1  a.m.  October  5tli. 

As  soon  as  he  arrived  he  unloaded  his  men  and 
supplies  and  sent  his  train  back  to  Rome  for  more 
men.  Corse  brought  with  him  about  1,000. 

Colonel  Tourtelotte  at  Allatoona  and  his  brave 
men  had  held  on  against  all  preliminary  skirmishing, 

58 


General  Hood’s  Northward  March 

hut  the  rumors  by  signal  and  otherwise  were  disheart¬ 
ening.  Imagine  the  courage  and  inspiration  which 
such  a  man  as  Corse  with  his  reenforcement  gave  to 
them. 

The  Confederate  commander  very  deliberately 
went  about  the  investment  of  the  garrison,  and  had 
with  him,  according  to  the  latest  returns,  2,962  ef¬ 
fectives  and  a  total  of  4,412  men. 

About  eight  o’clock,  while  the  firing  on  both  sides 
was  still  going  on,  Corse  detected  a  flag  of  truce  com¬ 
ing  toward  the  redoubt  from  the  north  Confederate 
brigade.  It  brought  in  a  dispatch  which  proved  to 
be  a  communication  from  the  Confederate  general, 
French. 


Around  Allatoona,  October  5,  1864. 
Commanding  Officer  United  States  Forces,  Allatoona. 

Sir:  I  have  placed  the  forces  under  my  command  in  such 
positions  that  you  are  surrounded,  and  to  avoid  a  needless 
effusion  of  blood,  I  call  on  you  to  surrender  your  forces  at  once 
and  unconditionally.  Five  minutes  will  allow  you  to  decide. 
Should  you  accede  to  this,  you  will  be  treated  in  the  most 
honorable  manner  as  prisoners  of  war. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  very  respectfully  yours, 

S.  G.  French, 

*  Major  General  Commanding  Forces  Confederate  States. 

All  of  us  who  knew  Corse  can  see  with  what 
promptness  and  energy  he  instantly  penned  his  brief 
response : 

Headquarters  Fourth  Division,  Fifteenth  Corps, 
Allatoona,  Ga.,  8.30  a.m.,  October  5,  1864. 

Major  General  S.  G.  French,  Confederate  States  Army,  etc.: 
Your  communication  demanding  surrender  of  my  command  I 
acknowledge  receipt  of.  and  respectfully  reply  that  we  are  pre- 

59 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

pared  for  “the  needless  effusion  of  blood”  whenever  it  is  agree¬ 
able  to  you. 

I  am,  very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

John  M.  Corse, 

Brigadier  General  Commanding  Forces  U nited  States. 

As  soon  as  the  return  dispatch  was  off,  Corse 
visited  the  different  fronts  of  his  redoubt  and  told 
the  officers  and  men  of  the  demand  for  surrender  and 
what  his  answer  had  been.  He  encouraged  them  by 
his  words  and  manner  so  that  they  were  prepared  to 
do  their  utmost. 

His  necessary  arrangements  were  scarcely  com¬ 
pleted  before  the  battle  began  in  earnest,  and  raged 
with  great  severity. 

The  resistance,  in  connection  with  the  rough  ap¬ 
proaches,  caused  the  Confederates  considerable  delay 
in  approaching  the  regular  advance  points  of  the 
redoubt. 

But  the  Confederate  commanders  did  not  yet  give 
up.  They  covered  themselves  by  other  obstacles, 
such  as  trees,  ravines,  logs,  and  stumps,  in  such  a  way 
as  to  shoot  down  anv  Yankee  soldiers  who  showed 
themselves  above  the  irregular  parapet.  The  men 
stood  steadily  to  their  duty  in  spite  of  their  danger*. 

French’s  Confederates  worked  themselves  entirely 
around  the  trenches,  and,  though  not  rapidly,  yet  con¬ 
stantly,  were  picking  off  our  men.  About  one  o’clock 
Corse  himself  received  a  wound  from  a  rifle  ball  which 
“  crossed  the  left  side  of  his  face  and  cut  off  the  tip  of 
his  ear.”  He  was  upon  his  horse  at  the  time. 

For  half  an  hour  the  gallant  commander  seemed  un¬ 
conscious.  Now,  thinking  he  heard  somebody  cry, 
“  Cease  firing !  ”  he  revived  and  came  fully  to  himself ; 

60 


General  Hood’s  Northward  March 

instantly  he  encouraged  the  officers  around  him  to 
keep  np  their  resistance.  lie  told  them  that  our  army 
was  rapidly  approaching,  and  would  be  there  before! 
long. 

Corse’s  words  had  the  desired  effect.  The  efforts 
of  our  men  to  fire  above  the  parapet  were  renewed. 
Corse’s  artillery  being  out  of  ammunition,  some  fear¬ 
less  soldier,  whose  name,  unfortunately,  is  not  remem¬ 
bered,  ran  across  under  fire  to  the  east  hill,  and 
brought  them  as  much  case  shot  and  canister  as  he 
could  fetch.  About  two  o’clock  in  the  afternoon 
some  one  reported  a  force  gathering  behind  one  of  the 
houses,  from  which  a  rush  was  to  be  made  upon  the 
redoubt.  Very  quickly  a  piece  of  artillery  was  moved 
across  the  redoubt  to  an  embrasure  opening  in  that 
direction.  From  that  point  by  two  or  three  dis¬ 
charges  the  new  column  was  broken  up,  and  all  the 
groups  of  Confederates  were  repelled  by  the  quick 
fire  from  the  waiting  rifles  of  our  men. 

This  event  seems  to  have  turned  the  tables  in 
favor  of  this  little  garrison,  and  by  four  o’clock  every 
front  had  been  thoroughly  cleared  of  living  and  able 
Confederates. 

In  this  battle  Corse  commends  Colonel  Tourtelotte. 
He  recommended  him  for  promotion,  and  said  of  him : 
“  Though  wounded  in  the  early  part  of  the  action,  he 
remained  with  his  men  to  the  close.” 

Of  Colonel  Eowett  he  remarked :  “  Twice  wounded, 
he  clung  tenaciously  to  his  post,  and  fully  earned  the 
promotion  I  so  cheerfully  recommend  may  he  awarded 
him.” 

The  severity  of  the  struggle  may  he  noticed  by  the 
losses  on  Corse’s  side  of  6  officers,  136  men  killed;  22 
officers,  330  men  wounded;  6  officers,  206  men  miss- 

61 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

ing;  total,  706.  They  buried  231  Confederates,  cap¬ 
tured  411  prisoners,  4  stands  of  colors,  and  800 
rifles.  Among  the  Confederate  prisoners  was  a  bri¬ 
gade  commander,  General  Young. 

There  were  several  dispatches  which  passed  be¬ 
tween  Sherman  and  Corse  during  this  engagement, 
among  them  the  famous  signal  which  came  over  the 
Confederate  heads  from  the  top  of  Kenesaw  sixteen 
miles  away  at  6.30  a.m.  :  “  Hold  fort ;  we  are  coming.” 

Fom  this  incident  the  famous  hymn  “  Hold  the  Fort, 
for  I  Am  Coming,”  was  written  by  Major  D.  W.  Whit¬ 
tle,  my  provost  marshal  and  personal  friend.  Later 
he  became  a  well-known  Evangelist.  Also  the  fol¬ 
lowing  : 

Commanding  Officer,  Allatoona:  Sherman  says  hold 
fast;  we  are  coming. 

And  Corse’s  reply: 

Allatoona,  Ga.,  October  5,  1864. 

.  .  .  Where  is  Sherman? 

Kenesaw  Mountain,  October  5th. 

Near  you.  Tell  Allatoona  hold  on.  Sherman  says  he  is 
working  hard  for  you. 

Again : 

Kenesaw  Mountain,  October  6th,  2  p.m. 

How  is  Corse?  What  news? 

Dayton,  Aid-de-Camp. 

Answer : 

Allatoona,  October  6th,  2  p.m. 

Captain  L.  M.  Dayton,  Aid-de-Camp:  I  am  short  of  a  cheek¬ 
bone  and  one  ear,1  but  am  able  to  whip  all  hell  yet. 

John  M.  Corse, 
Brigadier  General. 

1  For  his  acts  of  special  gallantry  in  heroically  defending  Allatoona, 
Brigadier  General  John  M.  Corse  was  awarded  the  commission  of  Brevet 
Major  General  of  Volunteers,  October  5,  1864. 

62 


General  Hood’s  Northward  March 

It  was  quite  a  feat  to  communicate  backward  and 
forward  sixteen  miles  by  signal  over  the  enemy’s 
heads. 

Even  General  Hood  said :  “  General  Corse  won 

my  admiration  by  his  gallant  resistance.” 

General  Corse’s  command  belonging  to  my  army, 
I  issued  the  following  order: 

Headquarters  Department  and  Army  of 
the  Tennessee,  near  Kenesaw  Mountain,  October  9,  1864. 
General  Field  Orders  No.  18. 

While  uniting  in  high  commendation  awarded  by  the  Gen¬ 
eral  in  Chief,  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee  would  tender  through 
me  its  hearty  appreciation  and  thanks  to  Brigadier  General  John 
M.  Corse  for  his  promptitude,  energy,  and  eminent  success  in  the 
defense  of  Allatoona  Pass  against  a  force  so  largely  superior  to 
his  own,  and  our  warmest  congratulations  are  extended  to  him, 
to  Colonel  Tourtelotte,  and  the  rest  of  our  comrades  in  arms 
who  fought  at  Allatoona,  for  the  glorious  manner  in  which  they 
vetoed  “the  useless  effusion  of  blood.” 

O.  O.  Howard, 

Major-General. 

As  soon  as  the  news  of  the  failure  of  the  Con¬ 
federates  to  take  Allatoona,  and  also  the  prevention 
of  Armstrong’s  cavalry  from  destroying  the  bridge 
across  the  Etowah,  was  brought  to  Hood,  then  near 
Lost  Mountain,  he  continued  his  march  daily  north¬ 
ward.  He  crossed  the  Coosa  River  near  the  hamlet 
of  Coosaville,  and  then  marched  up  the  western  bank 
of  the  Oostenaula.  He  went  above  Resaca,  and  quite 
completely  destroyed  the  railroad  all  the  way  along 
above  Resaca  toward  Chattanooga  as  far  as  our  first 
battleground,  “  Tunnel  Hill.”  He  captured  our  posts 
at  Dalton  and  Buzzard  Roost,  securing  at  least  1,000 
prisoners. 


63 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

By  this  time  the  Confederate  cavalry  under 
Wheeler  had  rejoined  his  army.  As  a  last  effort  Gen¬ 
eral  Stephen  D.  Lee,  with  his  corps,  undertook  the 
capture  of  the  garrison  at  Resaca.  Hood  himself 
made  the  demand,  October  12,  1864,  to  the  command¬ 
ing  officer  in  these  terms : 

Sir:  I  demand  the  immediate  and  unconditional  surrender  of 
the  post  and  garrison  under  your  command,  and  should  this  be 
acceded  to,  all  white  soldiers  and  officers  will  be  paroled  in  a 
few  days.  If  the  place  is  carried  by  assault,  no  prisoners  will 
be  taken. 

Respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

J.  B.  Hood, 

General. 

Colonel  Wever’ s  reply  is  worthy  of  record,  ad¬ 
dressed  the  same  date  to  General  Hood : 

Your  communication  of  this  date  just  received.  In  reply  I 
have  to  state  that  I  am  somewhat  surprised  at  the  concluding 
paragraph,  to  the  effect  that  if  the  place  is  carried  by  assault 
no  prisoners  will  be  taken.  In  my  opinion  I  can  hold  this  post. 
If  you  want  it,  come  and  take  it. 

I  am,  general,  very  respectfully,  your  most  obedient  servant, 

Clark  R.  Wever, 
Commanding  Officer. 

Wever  had  but  a  small  brigade,  yet  Lee’s  invest¬ 
ment  was  not  complete,  so  that  Wever  was  soon  re¬ 
enforced  by  our  cavalry  from  the  direction  of  Kings¬ 
ton. 

Hood  decided,  doubtless,  after  Wever’s  rejoinder, 
not  to  assault  the  works,  and  commenced  at  once  the 
destruction  of  the  railroad. 

My  army  was  near  Kenesaw,  pulling  on  as  rapidly 
as  possible  northward  October  5th.  During  the  night 

64 


General  Hood’s  Northward  March 

of  the  12th  we  all  reached  the  vicinity  of  Resaca,  hav¬ 
ing,  in  fact,  recovered  all  of  onr  stations  up  to  that 
point,  and  commenced  the  speedy  repair  of  the  culvert 
and  railroad  tracks. 

On  the  morning  of  the  13th  we  found  that  every 
detachment  of  the  enemy  had  disappeared.  His 
Third  Corps  had  passed  over  beyond  the  high  ranges 
westward,  a  part  of  them  going  through  Snake  Creek 
Gap  and  obstructing  the  way  for  four  or  five  miles 
by  felled  trees.  They  were  of  every  size,  crossed  and 
crisscrossed  in  our  path.  Sherman  desired  me,  trees 
or  no  trees,  to  push  rapidly  after  Hood,  and  I  was 
eager  enough  myself  to  get  through  the  obstructed 
gap. 

I  remember  that  General  Belknap,  one  of  my  divi¬ 
sion  commanders,  afterwards  Secretary  of  War  under 
President  Grant,  was  reluctant  about  leading  the  way, 
desiring  the  obstructions  to  be  first  cleared  away  by 
pioneers.  I  saw  him  delaying  and  walking  toward 
Sherman,  who  was  then  standing  near  a  house,  so  I 
sent  Belknap  word,  through  an  aid-de-camp,  to  go  on 
at  once  through  the  gap  or  I  would  send  some  one  in 
his  place.  He  showed  considerable  feeling,  but  went 
on  to  move  his  men.  Small  trees  were  thrown  out  of 
the  way  by  the  soldiers,  while  officers  and  men  went 
steadily  on  under  and  over  the  larger  ones;  mean¬ 
while,  our  engineers  and  pioneers  who  had  good  axes 
cut  these  off. 

That  very  night  before  dark  we  succeeded  in  get¬ 
ting  my  two  corps,  Osterkaus’s  and  Ransom’s  com¬ 
mands,  in  close  proximity  to  Hood’s  army,  and  we 
thought  then  that  Hood  would  delay  with  hope  of  en¬ 
gaging  our  forces  piecemeal  as  they  came  through 
the  mountains.  Hood’s  headquarters  were  that 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

night  near  Villanow,  but  a  few  miles  from  us.  The 
next  morning  at  dawn  there  were  no  signs  of  the  Con¬ 
federate  army  in  our  neighborhood,  except  those  of 
vacant  camps.  We  proceeded  as  rapidly  as  we  could 
as  far  as  the  town  of  Gaylesville,  Ala.  There  we 
halted  October  21st.  Hood’s  whole  army  had  by  this 
time  passed  on.  His  own  headquarters  were  then  at 
Gadsden.  The  only  skirmish  in  consequence  of  our 
pursuit  that  any  part  of  my  force  had  was  on  the 
morning  of  October  16th,  when  my  leftmost  division, 
under  General  Charles  R.  Woods,  ran  upon  Hood’s 
rear  guard  at  Ship’s  Gap. 

We  there  captured  a  part  of  the  Twenty-fourth 
South  Carolina.  From  that  time  on  the  Confederates 
were  moving  rapidly  away  from  us.  From  the  21st 
to  the  28th  of  October  we  remained  at  Gaylesville  or 
in  that  vicinity,  while  Sherman  was  communicating 
with  his  commanders  at  Chattanooga  and  Nashville, 
and  with  his  commander  in  chief  at  Washington  con¬ 
cerning  the  future. 

One  of  my  corps  officers,  General  Ransom,  who  was 
admirably  commanding  the  Seventeenth  Corps,  was 
taken  ill  with  what  I  supposed  at  the  time  was  a  tem¬ 
porary  attack.  It  began  about  the  time  we  drew  out 
from  East  Point. 

After  Corse’s  victory  at  Allatoona,  Ransom  had 
written  him  as  follows:  “We  all  feel  grateful  to 
God  for  your  brilliant  victory,  and  are  proud  of  our 
old  comrade  and  his  noble  division.  Y"ou  have  the 
congratulation  and  sympathy  of  the  Seventeenth 
Corps.” 

Ransom  was  a  young  officer  who  had  graduated 
from  Norwich  University,  Vermont,  the  son  of  the  dis¬ 
tinguished  Colonel  Ransom  who  lost  his  life  in  Mexico. 

66 


General  Hood’s  Northward  March 


He  was  a  large,  strong,  finely  formed,  handsome 
young  man  of  acknowledged  ability,  exalted  char¬ 
acter,  and  great  promise. 

He  was  so  desirous  to  go  on  this  campaign  that, 
though  ill,  nothing  could  prevent  his  undertaking  it. 
At  first  he  rode  his  horse  and  did  his  full  duty  night 
and  day.  "When  he  grew  weaker  he  had  himself 
drawn  at  the  head  of  his  command  in  an  ambulance, 
and  at  last  he  caused  his  men  to  carry  him  along  on 
an  army  stretcher,  resolute  to  the  end. 

He  died,  October  29th,  in  a  house  near  our  road, 
carried  thither  by  his  men,  while  his  command  was  en 
route  between  Gaylesville  and  Rome,  Ga. 


67 


CHAPTER  XL 


RETURN  TO  ATLANTA;  THE  MARCH  TO  THE  SEA;  BATTLE  OF 

GRIS  WOLD  VILLE,  GA. 

ryy  IiE  Army  of  the  Tennessee  changed  its  camp 
from  Gaylesville,  Ala.,  to  Cave  Spring  and 
Cedartown,  Ga.,  making  short  marches.  Every  hos¬ 
tile  soldier  was  so  far  away  that  onr  occupation  of  the 
country  was  peaceful.  The  inhabitants  soon  became 
acquainted  with  us,  and  our  camps  afforded  good 
centers  for  trade. 

On  account  of  insufficiency  of  time  to  graze  we  lost 
many  of  the  poorer  mules  and  some  artillery  horses; 
and,  in  fact,  those  losses  distressed  us  till  after  pass¬ 
ing  Ship’s  Gap,  north  of  the  Etowah,  when  the  forage 
wagons  became  empty  and  grass  neither  abundant  nor 
nutritious. 

The  weaker  mules  were  detached  and  sent  away 
in  herds  to  Chattanooga.  The  best  being  retained 
were  held  in  service.  During  our  rest  at  Gaylesville, 
Ala.,  pursuant  to  new  directions  from  General  Sher¬ 
man,  a  redistribution  of  artillery  was  made,  leaving 
but  one  battery  to  a  division;  then,  by  judicious  ex¬ 
changes,  the  good  horses  were  attached  to  the  re¬ 
tained  batteries,  and  the  remainder  were  hurried  off 
toward  our  depot  at  Rome  and  Chattanooga.  Cedar- 
town,  Ga.,  and  all  its  bright  neighborhood,  rejoiced  in 
a  plentiful  supply  of  grain.  So  our  animals  day  by 

68 


Return  to  Atlanta 


day  were  gaining  flesh  and  their  strength,  and,  indeed, 
my  army  was  surprisingly  well  supplied  with  pro¬ 
visions  from  the  country  during  our  return  march, 
which  was  made  by  short  stages  for  the  very  purpose 
of  rest  and  refreshment  after  the  300  miles  of  severe 
additional  campaigning. 

November  3d  I  encamped  near  Dallas. 

The  4th  we  were  grouped  near  Lost  Mountain, 
where  it  was  easier  to  lose  your  way  from  the  thick 
woods  and  crooked  roads  than  to  lose  sight  of  the 
mountain.  In  fact,  the  mountain,  unaccountably 
named  “  Lost,”  enabled  a  wanderer  to  refind  his  path¬ 
way. 

The  5th  brought  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee  back 
to  Smyrna  Camp  Ground.  There  we  remained  until 
November  13tli. 

General  Sherman  himself,  as  early  as  November 
2d,  had  changed  his  headquarter  belongings  again  to 
the  little  hamlet  of  Kingstown,  Ga.  From  this  point 
that  same  day  was  the  significant  dispatch  to  Grant: 
“  If  I  turn  back,  the  whole  effect  of  my  campaign  will 
be  lost.  ...  I  am  clearly  of  the  opinion  that  the 
best  results  will  follow  my  contemplated  movement 
through  Georgia.” 

Grant’s  reply  is:  “  Your  dispatch  of  9  a.m.  yester¬ 
day  just  received.  ...  I  do  not  see  that  you  can  with¬ 
draw  from  where  you  are  to  follow  Hood  without  giv¬ 
ing  up  all  we  have  gained  in  the  territory ;  I  say,  then, 
go  on  as  you  propose.” 

Our  sick  in  increasing  numbers  before  the  cam¬ 
paign,  but  proportionately  diminishing  during  Hood’s 
raid,  were  brought  together  at  Rome  and  Atlanta. 
While  we  rested,  they  were  carefully  removed  to  Chat¬ 
tanooga  and  Nashville;  al  o  surplus  stores  of  every 

69 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

kind  that  had  accumulated  at  Atlanta  were  sent  back 
as  fast  as  possible. 

General  Corse  acted  in  Rome  in  this  respect  as  did 
our  Chief  Quartermaster  at  Atlanta.  Then,  on  No¬ 
vember  10th,  after  he  had  demolished  the  storehouses, 
he  evacuated  Rome  and  commenced  his  march  toward 
Atlanta.  During  November  12th  the  troops  with  me 
destroyed  all  the  railroad  from  Big  Shanty  forward 
to  the  Chattahoochee  River,  burning  the  ties  in  heaps 
and  twisting  the  rails.  The  stretch  of  railroad  com¬ 
pletely  disabled  was  about  twenty-two  miles  in  extent. 

November  13,  1864,  my  army  broke  camp  and  pro¬ 
ceeded  from  Smyrna  Camp  Ground  to  Atlanta.  We 
chose  a  place  for  concentration  at  a  railroad  station 
south  of  the  city,  then  called  White  Hall,  situated 
about  halfway  to  East  Point. 

Corse  arrived  the  evening  of  the  14tli.  John  E. 
Smith’s  division,  that  had  been  guarding  the  railroad 
during  the  greater  part  of  our  Atlanta  campaign,  por¬ 
tions  of  which  had  been  stationed  at  Resaca  and  Alla- 
toona,  concentrated  at  Cartersville,  then  marching  on 
southward,  also  joined  us  the  morning  of  the  14th. 
Thus  again  my  own  field  command  was  gathered  to¬ 
gether.  Of  course,  by  breaking  up  our  lines  of  com¬ 
munication  the  effective  force  was  increased.  Be¬ 
sides  these  additions,  an  encouraging  number  of  sick 
recovered,  and  recruits  brought  from  the  North  joined 
the  different  regiments,  so  that  my  effective  troops 
were  in  the  neighborhood  of  33,000.  My  army  did  not 
witness  the  destruction  of  Atlanta. 

While  Sherman,  accompanied  by  Slocum,  com¬ 
manding  the  Army  of  Georgia,  were  taking  their  last 
glimpse  of  this  great  railroad  center,  now  mostly  in 
ashes,  and  pushing  off  toward  Augusta,  my  command 

70 


Return  to  Atlanta 


was  moving  southward.  We  left  White  Hall  Novem¬ 
ber  15,  1864,  and  I  made  a  feint  toward  Macon  to  de¬ 
ceive  the  enemy  gathering  in  my  front. 

Kilpatrick’s  cavalry,  about  5,000  horsemen,  had  al¬ 
ready  reported  to  me,  and  were  sent  during  the  first 
of  “  The  March  to  the  Sea  ”  to  clear  my  front  and 
watch  my  right  flank  as  we  wandered  southward. 

Till  November  19th  to  all  appearances  we  were 
sweeping  on  toward  Macon;  then  first  our  infantry 
by  a  sudden  turn  to  the  left  crossed  to  the  east  of 
Ocmulgee  on  pontoon  bridges.  The  steep  and  muddy 
banks  were  bothersome.  The  cavalry  followed  close, 
and,  as  soon  as  over  the  river,  again  quickly  turned 
down  the  first  roads  toward  East  Macon.  The  army, 
clambering  up  with  difficulty  the  east  bank  of  the  river, 
made  straight  for  a  station  on  the  Macon  &  Savannah 
Railroad  called  Gordon.  Our  trains,  including  Kil¬ 
patrick’s,  stretched  out,  would  have  been  thirty-seven 
miles  long.  To  get  those  wagons  “  parked  ”  at  Gordon 
without  accident  was  our  problem. 

Osterhaus,  commanding  our  Fifteenth  Corps  (Lo¬ 
gan  being  absent),  was  on  the  right.  I  was  with  him 
when  he  struck  the  Macon  &  Savannah  Railroad  early 
November  22d.  Then,  turning  back  a  little  from  East 
Macon,  I  had  him  send  General  Charles  R.  Woods  to 
watch  out  that  way  with  his  division  and  help  Kil¬ 
patrick,  for  much  Confederate  force  of  infantry,  cav¬ 
alry,  and  artillery  was  reported  as  over  the  Ocmulgee 
in  East  Macon,  which  evidently  proposed  to  attack 
something.  They  might,  at  least,  catch  our  long,  snaky 
trains  and  cut  them  asunder.  General  Woods  faced 
back,  and  took  up  a  strong  position  near  a  church; 
then  he  sent  forward  one  brigade  under  Brigadier 
General  C.  C.  Walcutt,  with  total  present  for  duty 

71 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

1,513  men,  partly  armed  with  Spencer  repeating  rifles. 
Walcutt  also  had  two  cannon.  Just  then,  at  the  start, 
the  Confederates  were  noisily  driving  before  them  a 
part  of  Kilpatrick’s  cavalry.  Woods  thereupon  sent 
Walcutt  that  way  past  the  station  of  Griswoldville. 

Our  cavalry  and  infantry  kept  skirmishing  in  a 
lively  manner,  till  Osterhaus  naturally  thought  that 
Walcutt  had  gone  far  enough.  He  instructed  Woods 
to  draw  him  back  to  Duncan’s  farm,  nearer  to  his  sup¬ 
porting  division.  Here  they  found  abundant  trees  and 
some  convenient  swamps,  impassable  except  at  a  few 
points.  Walcutt  noisily  chose  the  edge  of  a  wood 
with  open  ground  in  front  of  him,  throwing  up  the 
usual  cover  of  rails  and  logs,  while  some  of  Kilpat¬ 
rick’s  men  guarded  the  more  distant  swamps.  One 
thousand  five  hundred  and  thirteen  Yankee  men  be¬ 
hind  that  barrier  with  two  cannon  to  cover  the  ap¬ 
proaches  by  using  iron  hail  were  more  than  equal  to 
10,000  opponents,  however  determined  they  might  be. 

General  Gustavus  W.  Smith  was  an  assistant  pro¬ 
fessor  in  engineering  at  West  Point  the  last  year  of 
my  cadet  term  (1853-4),  and  taught  our  class,  instruct¬ 
ing  me  how  to  recognize  and  take  “  a  military  posi¬ 
tion.”  He,  though  at  the  time  quite  a  young  officer, 
had  been  twice  brevetted  for  gallantry  and  merit  in 
the  Mexican  War.  He  was  a  self-respecting,  dignified 
man  of  marked  ability.  He  had  left  the  army,  and 
was  trying  his  skill  in  civil  pursuits,  holding  just 
before  the  war  the  office  of  Street  Commissioner  in 

/ 

New  York  Citv,  when  the  secession  outburst  took 

%i  7 

him  south.  Now  he  was  said  to  be  commanding  the 
Confederates  in  my  front  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Macon,  November  15,  1864. 

The  size  of  his  command  was: 

72 


Return  to  Atlanta 


Effective  muskets  (sent  from  Jonesboro) .  1,900 

Reserves  of  all  kinds .  1,200 

Two  batteries  (a  battalion,  probably  200) .  200 

State-line  troops .  400 


Actual  fighting  men  with  rifles  and  muskets.  .  .  3,700 

The  battle  began  at  2.30  p.m.  and  lasted  until  sun¬ 
set.  During  the  engagement  the  enemy  made  three 
separate  charges  and  were  as  often  repulsed  with 
heavy  loss. 

General  Woods  foots  his  losses:  13  killed,  79 
wounded,  and  2  missing;  total,  93. 

The  enemy’s  loss  was  a  little  over  600.  General 
Smith  had  been  delayed  in  Macon  while  his  command 
was  hastening  on  toward  Augusta;  they  found  that 
we  had  two  corps  of  our  army  across  all  their  roads 
of  egress  toward  Atlanta,  Milledgeville,  Augusta,  or 
Savannah  ;  hence  came  about  the  battle  of  Griswold- 
ville  of  which  I  reported  November  27,  1864 : 

“  That  this  engagement  was  of  a  more  severe  char¬ 
acter  and  our  loss  a  little  greater  than  I  had  at  first 
supposed;  but  fortunately  the  enemy  attacked  us  at 
the  very  point  where  we  were  prepared;  though  with 
a  force  one-third  less  than  that  of  the  enemy.  The 
Confederates  were  so  completely  defeated  that  they 
troubled  us  no  more  in  that  quarter.  During  the 
battle  I  took  post  with  my  staff  where  I  could  reen¬ 
force  if  necessary.  I  was  glad  to  be  able  to  demon- 
strate  General  Smith’s  instructions  in  regard  to  tak¬ 
ing  a  new  military  position.”  1 


1  Later,  during  the  stormy  reconstruction  period,  General  G.  W.  Smith 
defended  me  in  the  face  of  criticism  of  my  efforts  to  alleviate  the  suffer¬ 
ing  of  the  negro  when  passing  from  slavery  to  freedom.  I  have  always 
remembered  the  kindness  with  gratitude  and  appreciation. 

73 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

After  the  battle  I  wrote  the  following  to  Major 
General  Osterhaus,  commanding  the  Fifteenth  Corps. 

General:  I  take  pleasure  in  congratulating  the  brigade  of 
General  Walcutt  of  General  Woods's  division  of  the  fifteenth 
Corps  on  its  complete  success  in  the  action  of  yesterday. 
Officers  from  other  commands  who  were  looking  on  say  that 
there  was  never  a  better  brigade  of  soldiers.  I  am  exceedingly 
sorry  that  any  of  our  brave  men  should  fall,  and  for  the  suffer¬ 
ings  of  those  who  are  wTounded.  The  thanks  of  the  army  are 
doubly  due  them.  I  tender  my  sympathy  through  you  to  the 
brave  and  excellent  commander  of  the  brigade,  Brigadier  Gen¬ 
eral  Walcutt. 

It  is  hoped  that  his  wound  may  not  disable  him. 

Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

0.  0.  Howard, 

Major  General. 

We  marched  over  rough  places  and  jolted  along 
corduroy  roads,  yet  all  our  wounded  from  this  battle 
were  transported  from  Griswold  Station  to  the  sea 
without  loss  of  life. 

The  object  I  had  in  sending,  through  Osterhaus, 
Woods's  division  off  to  my  right  was  to  help  Kil¬ 
patrick  keep  back  any  forces  of  the  Confederate  cav¬ 
alry  or  infantry  from  getting  at  our  long  trains. 
These  trains  were  struggling  over  muddy  and  difficult 
roads,  so  that  it  was  hard  to  keep  them  reasonably 
closed  up.  We  drew  them  out  of  the  wagon  road  at 
Gordon,  and  had  the  teamsters,  urged  by  their  wagon 
masters,  drive  as  rapidly  as  possible  into  park. 
Fortunately,  we  got  all  the  wagons  well  massed  near 
that  small  railroad  station  without  loss  of  any. 

An  incident  took  place  before  reaching  Gordon, 
near  the  town  of  Clinton,  which  indicates  how  the 
troops  came  into  collision.  Wheeler  found  Oster- 

74 


Return  to  Atlanta 


haus’s  men  moving  through  Clinton.  He  did  not  ob¬ 
serve  them,  owing  to  a  dense  fog,  until  in  close  proxim¬ 
ity.  Six  Confederates  rushed  into  town,  and  succeeded 
in  capturing  an  orderly  who  was  in  personal  service 
at  the  time  at  Osterhaus’s  headquarters.  This  man 
was  seized  within  twenty  feet  of  the  corps  commander 
himself,  yet  the  captors  escaped  in  safety. 

Slocum,  with  the  left  wing,  had  meanwhile  reached 
Milledgeville,  where  his  men  had  instituted  a  mock 
legislature,  completed  the  issue  of  a  newspaper,  and 
celebrated  the  occasion  by  rich  festivals  of  their  own 
contrivance.  General  Slocum  communicated  with  me 
and  with  Kilpatrick  by  scouting  parties  moving  across 
from  Slocum’s  column  to  mine,  the  distance  being  in 
the  neighborhood  of  ten  or  twelve  miles.  Thus  far 
“  The  March  to  the  Sea,”  more  serious  on  my  route 
by  the  loss  of  about  a  hundred  men  and  the  exciting 
event  of  a  battle,  was  working  greatly  to  Sherman’s 
satisfaction. 

I  sent  a  dispatch  from  my  halting  place  at  Gordon 
by  Kilpatrick,  who  was  now  ordered  to  pass  from  my 
column  over  toward  the  left  to  work  forward  in  con¬ 
junction  with  Slocum.  This  dispatch  was  addressed 
to  Sherman.  I  told  him  that  the  Oconee  was  before 
me,  and  that  I  was  examining  the  crossings.  Fuller 

accounts  of  what  we  had  done  had  alreadv  been  for- 

%/ 

warded  by  the  hands  of  Captain  William  Duncan,  who 
had  the  immediate  command  of  his  company,  acting 
as  scouts  for  me. 

Curiously  enough,  this  Captain  Duncan,  who,  from 
some  reports  sent  me  about  that  time  by  General  Blair 
concerning  him  and  his  scouts,  appeared  to  me  to  be 
rather  reckless,  at  this  time  performed  a  feat  quite 
in  keeping  with  his  subsequent  remarkable  career. 

75 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

It  was  before  Sherman  and  Slocum  had  reached 
Milledgeville.  In  a  letter  I  remarked :  “  To-morrow 

I  will  have  everything  substantially  at  Gordon.  Our 
marches  at  first  (from  Atlanta),  imtil  we  reached  Oc- 
mulgee,  were  very  pleasant,  having  good  roads  and 
good  weather.  Since  then  our  roads  have  been  very 
heavy,  and  the  rain  continuous.  We  have  found  the 
country  full  of  provisions,  and  thus  far  have  drawn 
very  little  upon  our  rations.  We  have  destroyed  (as 
instructed)  a  large  amount  of  cotton,  the  Planters’ 
Factory,  a  pistol  factory,  and  a  mill  at  Griswold;  the 
latter  three  by  Kilpatrick.” 

Now,  referring  to  Captain  Duncan’s  enterprise  ten 
miles  ahead  of  us  and  toward  our  left  front,  I  said: 
“  The  Mayor  of  Milledgeville  surrendered  the  town, 
the  capital  of  Georgia,  formally  to  Captain  Duncan 
and  a  few  scouts.”  Then,  speaking  of  some  cavalry 
that  went  from  Blair’s  headquarters  or  mine  to  support 
the  scouts,  I  wrote :  “  After  Duncan’s  capture  a  com¬ 
pany  of  the  First  Alabama  Cavalry  entered  the  town 
with  Captain  Duncan  and  destroyed  the  depot  and 
some  seventy-five  or  one  hundred  boxes  of  ammuni¬ 
tion  and  the  telegraph  office.  Duncan  had  returned 
to  me,  meeting  me  at  Gordon ;  and  so  I  sent  him  back 
again  November  22d  with  a  fuller  report  of  our  late 
battle  to  be  delivered  to  General  Sherman.” 

After  receiving  full  news  and  causing  Kilpatrick 
with  his  cavalry  to  cross  over  to  the  left,  Sherman 
from  Milledgeville  issued  instructions  for  further 
movements  November  28d.  It  was  in  this  communica¬ 
tion  that  he  ordered  Kilpatrick  to  use  all  possible 
effort  to  rescue  our  prisoners  of  war  confined  near 
Millen.  In  the  accomplishment  of  this  the  cavalry 
failed. 


76 


Return  to  Atlanta 


Referring  to  the  railroad  I  was  substantially  fol¬ 
lowing,  Sherman  suggested  that  great  attention 
should  be  paid  to  the  destruction  of  this  road.  Be¬ 
sides  burning  bridges  and  trestles,  the  iron  should  be 
carefully  twisted  and  warped,  so  that  it  would  not  be 
possible  ever  to  use  it  again.  To  this  end,  our  rate 
of  travel  should  be  reduced  to  ten  miles  a  day. 

One  or  two  harsh  measures  may  be  inserted  to 
modify  somewhat  the  feeling  that  has  existed,  that 
our  foraging  soldiers  too  often  exceeded  their  instruc¬ 
tions.  They  were  directed  by  Sherman  “  to  capture 
wagons;  to  bring  their  plunder  to  camp,  after  which 
the  wagons  should  be  burned.”  Also :  “  Wherever 

such  obstruction  occurs  (referring  to  citizens  destroy¬ 
ing  bridges,  culverts,  etc.),  the  commanding  officer  of 
the  troops  present  on  the  spot  will  deal  harshly  with 
the  inhabitants  near  by,  to  show  them  that  it  is  for 
their  interest  not  to  impede  our  movements.’’ 

Again,  we  noticed  how  the  burning  of  cotton,  al¬ 
ready  imperatively  directed,  was  again  emphasized  by 
our  general :  “  Should  the  enemy  burn  forage  and  corn 
on  our  route,  houses,  barns,  and  cotton  gins  must  also 
be  burned  to  keep  them  company.” 

These  implicit  instructions,  together  with  the  well- 
known  expression  of  our  general,  “  to  forage  liberally 
on  the  country,”  caused  irregularities  almost  beyond 
the  power  of  control,  so  that  very  soon,  so  far  as  my 
wing  was  concerned,  I  was  obliged  to  stop  the  burn¬ 
ing  of  mills,  except  by  my  own  direct  orders.  And  I 
issued  these  restrictive  words: 

The  attention  of  the  corps  commanders  and  the 
commanders  of  unattached  regiments  and  detach¬ 
ments  is  called  to  the  irregularities  existing  in  forag¬ 
ing,  and  the  manner  in  which  this  privilege  is  often 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

abused.  It  is  noticed  that  many  men  not  belonging 
to  proper  foraging  parties  are  allowed  to  straggle 
from  the  ranks  and  forage  for  themselves  without  any 
authority  whatsoever.  It  is  by  such  men  that  the 
greater  part  of  the  pillaging  is  done,  and  depredations 
committed,  of  which  there  is  so  much  complaint.  Of¬ 
ficers  in  charge  of  foraging  parties  must  be  continu¬ 
ally  instructed  to  keep  their  men  well  in  hand,  never 
allowing  them  to  precede  the  advance  guard  of  the 
column,  and  to  use  more  discretion  in  taking  from  the 
poor,  being  careful  to  leave  them  sufficient  for  their 
immediate  subsistence.  It  is  also  noticed  that  the 
number  of  mounted  men  is  very  largely  increasing, 
and  that  the  ranks  are  correspondingly  diminished. 
Means  will  be  at  once  taken  to  check  this  growing  evil. 
The  number  of  mounted  foragers  to  each  brigade 
should  be  limited  and  regulated  in  orders,  which,  if 
not  done,  mounted  foragers  will  be  no  longer  allowed. 
AVe  are  now  nearing  the  enemy,  and  foraging  parties 
should  be  cautioned  against  preceding  the  advance  of 
the  column. 

In  order  to  keep  ourselves  in  more  complete  com¬ 
munication  where  the  country  was  penetrated  in 
every  direction  by  Wheeler’s  scouts,  and  where  Gen¬ 
eral  Wayne  had  a  force  of  at  least  1,000  men,  I  took 
advantage  of  Kilpatrick’s  leftward  march  to  send  my 
aid-de-camp,  Lieutenant  Colonel  C.  H.  Howard,  to 
Sherman  the  morning  of  November  24th,  just  as  I  was 
moving  forward.  He  was  to  remain  with  the  general 
until  we  came  together. 

The  message  that  he  bore  to  Sherman  showed  that 
Blair’s  corps  was  on  the  direct  road  to  the  railroad 
bridge;  that  his  advance  had  dislodged  Wayne’s  men 
from  a  stockade  close  to  the  Oconee  River  where  they 

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Return  to  Atlanta 


had  had  two  or  more  pieces  of  artillery.  I  wrote  to 
Sherman  that  I  might  have  to  ask  him  to  threaten  the 
enemy  from  the  north  of  my  troops,  because  the 
swamps  bordering  the  Oconee  were  so  difficult  that  an 
inferior  force  might  be  hindered.  I  had  searched  for 
a  place  to  cross  the  Oconee  near  the  railroad  bridge, 
called  Jackson’s  Ferry,  but  no  such  ferry  then  existed. 
There  was  a  series  of  lagoon  bridges  running  across 
the  main  stream  and  its  branches  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Ball’s  Ferry,  which  was  six  miles  south  of  the  rail¬ 
road  bridge.  Osterhaus  with  his  Fifteenth  Corps  was 
making  for  that  crossing.  To  that  point  I  went  myself. 

The  point  of  meeting  to  which  Colonel  Howard 
was  to  accompany  the  general  in  chief  was  called 
Sandersville,  beyond  and  east  of  the  Oconee  and  north 
of  our  railroad,  where  the  two  wings  of  Sherman’s 
army  would  naturally  touch  each  other.  Finding  all 
attempts  at  crossing  in  front  of  Blair  impracticable, 
I  was  obliged  to  bring  his  corps  to  the  vicinity  of 
Ball’s  Ferry,  following  Osterhaus. 

My  escort,  the  Alabama  (Union)  cavalry,  had  suc¬ 
ceeded  in  getting  a  small  detachment  beyond  the 
Oconee  before  the  bridges  were  destroyed ;  but 
Wayne,  coming  upon  them  with  infantry  and  artillery, 
drove  them  back  across  the  river  to  our  side.  Then 
Wayne  planted  himself  strongly  upon  a  prominent 
bluff  east  of  the  river  which  commanded  every  ap¬ 
proach  and  swept  the  causeways  and  bridges  so  thor¬ 
oughly  that  no  man  could  appear  for  an  instant  upon 
them.  The  swamp  on  our  side  was  a  mile  or  more 
broad,  with  water  waist  deep,  and  studded  with  trees, 
many  of  which  were  cypress. 

Moving  on  from  Gordon,  November  25th,  I  came  to 
the  vicinity  of  the  Oconee,  and  dismounted  to  rest  and 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

send  dispatches  near  a  house  on  the  right  side  of  the 
road,  when  Osterliaus,  coining  back,  told  me  before  he 
dismounted  that  he  could  get  no  farther,  as  the  enemy 
was  too  strong  on  the  other  side.  I  told  him  that  that 
was  no  way  to  talk,  but  to  keep  deploying  his  skirmish¬ 
ers  up  and  down  the  river  until  he  got  no  return  fire, 
and  report. 

He  soon  returned  and  assured  me  that  he  found 
no  enemy  a  few  hundred  yards  up  the  river.  I  then 
instructed  him  to  send  in  a  brigade  with  the  canvas 
boats,  already  put  together,  and  push  over  the  men 
rapidly  into  the  clearings  beyond,  then  come  down 
the  river  and  take  the  enemy  in  the  flank.  Of  this 
movement  Wayne  reported:  “  The  enemy  have  driven 
us  back  from  the  cross  bridge,  three  heavy  columns 
are  across  the  river,  and  they  have  possession  of 
Ball’s  Ferry,  below  here.  ...  To  save  the  men  I  will 
retire.” 

This  Oconee  crossing  was  the  most  difficult  that  we 
had  to  encounter,  though  the  forces  in  our  front  con¬ 
tinued  to  enlarge  as  we  proceeded  from  place  to  place. 
The  Confederate  garrisons  fell  back,  and  reenforce¬ 
ments  kept  coming  forward  from  Savannah.  The 
Confederate  general  then  in  charge  of  a  geographi¬ 
cal  division,  Braxton  Bragg,  peremptorily  ordered 
Wheeler  with  his  cavalry  and  some  artillery  to  stick 
close  to  us;  to  harass  us  in  front  and  flank,  and,  above 
all,  to  destroy  subsistence  and  forage  in  the  route  over 
which  we  advanced. 

Some  5,000  Confederates  fell  back  from  Sanders- 
ville  before  Sherman  arrived.  At  that  point,  the 
25th,  Sherman  himself  accompanied  my  left  corps  on 
the  eastern  bank  of  the  Ogeechee,  while  I  followed  the 
one  or  the  other  of  my  two  columns  on  the  right  bank, 

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Return  to  Atlanta 


usually  keeping  them  from  six  to  ten  miles  apart. 
Corse’s  division  was  as  far  to  the  right  as  Wrights- 
ville,  but  I  had  it  brought  gradually  back  into  a  closer 
connection  with  the  rest  of  the  Fifteenth  Corps. 

In  fact,  this  division,  though  having  the  longest 
journey,  came  up  to  the  vicinity  of  Station  No.  2, 
some  thirteen  miles  ahead  of  Blair’s  Seventeenth 
Corps,  the  leading  regiment  reaching  that  part  of  the 
Ogeechee,  where  there  were  two  bridges,  Wright’s 
and  Jenks’s.  The  Confederates  had  destroyed  them 
both  by  fire.  Wright’s  brigade  was  across  the  Ogee¬ 
chee,  three  miles  above  Jenks’s.  Colonel  Williamson, 
commanding  a  brigade,  managed  to  get  a  regiment 
over  this  broad  river,  and  on  the  east  side  made  a 
bridgehead  and  manned  it;  then  he  sent  fifty  men  of 
the  Ninth  Iowa  on  to  the  Gulf  Railroad  to  break  it. 
Captain  McSweeney,  in  charge  of  this  detachment,  ac¬ 
complished  the  purpose  in  plain  sight  of  a  train  loaded 
with  Confederate  troops;  after  which  he  brought  his 
men  safely  to  the  bridgehead. 

Oliver’s  brigade  of  Hazen’s  division,  which  had 
been  below  watching  Jenks’s  bridge,  with  many  Con¬ 
federates  opposite  to  him,  was  sent  away  up  a  tribu¬ 
tary  westward,  with  instructions  to  secure  a  crossing 
at  a  bridge  near  Bryan  Court  House.  He  left  one  regi¬ 
ment,  the  Ninetieth  Illinois,  with  a  battery  of  artillery, 
at  Jenks’s  bridge,  and  went  on  his  expedition.  He  held 
Jenks’s  bridge. 

At  Bryan  Court  House  the  river  was  obstructed 
by  a  strong  Confederate  force  on  the  other  side,  but 
Osterhaus,  supporting  Oliver,  had  a  search  made  for 
another  crossing.  They  found  an  old  ferry  below  the 
bridge  which  was  practicable.  An  expedition  was 
sent  across  in  the  night.  The  Confederates  were  sur- 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

prised.  Finding  tlieir  flank  turned  like  Wayne’s  at 
the  Oconee,  they  fled  at  the  first  alarm. 

Having  secured  the  crossing  near  Bryan’s  Court 
House,  Osterhaus  promptly  sent  a  sufficient  force  to 
break  up  a  portion  of  the  Gulf  Railroad  south  of  the 
Ogeechee. 

Osterhaus  now  concentrated  the  most  of  his  force 
near  Jenks’s  bridge.  General  Corse  was  on  the  lead. 
On  his  arrival  he  found  Colonel  Owen  Stuart  behind 
a  line  of  rifle  pits  exchanging  shot  with  considerable 
force  on  the  other  bank.  Corse  sent  up  a  battery 
and  located  it  so  as  to  clear  away  all  riflemen  that 
would  bother  his  boats.  Then  he  sent  Stuart’s  regi¬ 
ment  across  the  river.  As  soon  as  the  first  troops 
got  firm  foothold  east  of  the  Ogeechee,  the  Confed¬ 
erates  fell  back  to  a  prepared  work,  which  formed  a 
regular  defensive  connection  from  the  river  to  the 
high  ground. 

Osterhaus,  using  some  of  Corse’s  division  (Rice’s 
and  Williamson’s  brigades),  working  up  against 
swampy  places,  double  lines,  and  intrenchments,  car¬ 
ried  everything  before  him.  His  men  took  the  works, 
killed  and  wounded  some,  captured  thirty  prisoners, 
and  put  the  remainder  of  the  Confederates  to  flight. 
In  these  operations  Corse  and  Williamson  had  the  help 
of  that  famous  twenty-four-pounder-Parrott  battery 
which,  under  DeGress,  had  been  such  a  bone  of  con¬ 
tention  at  the  battle  of  Atlanta.  The  First  Missouri 
Battery  also  bore  a  part  in  this  small  battle. 

There  are  other  small  affairs  in  which  single  bri¬ 
gades  and  small  regiments  bore  a  part,  but  now  speed¬ 
ily  all  the  right  wing  was  brought  up  against  the  de¬ 
fenses  of  Hardee,  which  he  had  so  carefully  prepared 
to  envelop  the  city  from  Savannah  River  around  north 

82 


Return  to  Atlanta 


to  the  bay  below.  As  tlie  left  wing  bad  marched 
abreast  of  mine,  Sherman,  establishing  his  own  head¬ 
quarters  on  the  Louisville  road,  soon  invested  Savan¬ 
nah,  covering  every  approach,  in  conjunction  with  our 
naval  fleet,  except  the  communications  with  Charles¬ 
ton  across  the  Savannah  River. 

Just  before  this  operation  of  investment  began — 
December  9,  1864,  after  our  last  combat,  and  near  the 
Savannah  Canal — I  drew  up  a  dispatch  to  the  com¬ 
mander  of  the  naval  forces  to  this  effect : 

We  have  met  with  perfect  success  thus  far.  Troops  in  fine 
spirits  and  near  by. 

Respectfully, 

0.  O.  Howard, 

Major  General  Commanding. 

I  believe  that  I  inserted  the  word  “’Sherman  ”  be¬ 
fore  “  near  by  ”  but  the  above  is  the  form  in  which  the 
dispatch  has  always  appeared. 

I  selected  Captain  William  Duncan,  who  had  es¬ 
caped  from  capture  and  had  returned  to  my  escort,  and 
told  him  to  take  with  him  Sergeant  Myron  J.  Amick 
and  Private  George  W.  Quimby  and  proceed  down  the 
Ogeechee,  passing  Confederate  stations,  the  King’s 
Bridge,  Fort  McAllister,  and  all  obstructions,  and  go 
out  to  sea  and  communicate  with  the  fleet.  It  seemed 
next  to  impossible  that  the  feat  could  be  accomplished, 
but  Captain  Duncan’s  already  distinguished  career  as 
a  scout  and  his  confidence  that  he  could  accomplish 
the  enterprise  led  me  to  try  him.  He  secured  a  long 
dugout,  rather  narrow  and  somewhat  weather-beaten; 
then,  putting  in  rations,  he  took  my  dispatch  and  an¬ 
other  from  my  signal  officer  and  set  out.  He  went 
along  very  well  by  night,  having  passed  the  bridge 

83 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

and  carefully  worked  through  the  torpedo  obstruc¬ 
tions. 

When  the  day  dawned  the  morning  of  the  10th,  he 
found  some  negroes,  who  befriended  him  and  his  men. 
The  party  kept  pretty  well  under  cover  until  evening. 
During  the  night  they  appear  to  have  made  consider¬ 
able  progress,  but  did  not  succeed  in  getting  past  Fort 
McAllister.  They  went  ashore  to  get  a  negro  guide 
and  some  provisions;  they  tied  up  their  boats  and 
then  made  their  way  through  some  bushes  and  thin 
groves  till  they  came  near  a  roadway.  Here  they 
heard  the  voices  of  some  Confederates  passing  along 
the  road.  By  lying  down  and  keeping  very ,  quiet, 
they  were  not  discovered. 

Soon  after  this  they  came  to  quite  a  sizable  negro 
house,  went  in,  and  were  well  treated  and  refreshed 
with  provisions.  While  they  were  eating  they  were 
startled  by  hearing  a  party  of  Confederate  cavalry 
riding  toward  the  house.  Of  course  they  expected  to 
be  instantly  captured,  but  the  negroes  coming  quickly 
to  their  rescue  concealed  them  under  the  floor.  The 
coolness  and  smartness  of  the  negroes  surprised  even 
Captain  Duncan,  though  he  had  believed  in  and  trusted 
them.  The  cavalry  stopped  but  remained  only  a 
short  time,  and  the  negroes  guided  our  men  back  to 
their  boats. 

In  such  operations  as  these,  with  hairbreadth  es¬ 
capes,  they  hid  through  the  lltli  in  the  daytime. 
When  night  came,  to  avoid  one  danger,  they  crossed 
the  wide  river;  but  hearing  some  voices,  they  feared 
a  recapture  from  the  bank,  so  they  quietly  pushed 
away,  avoided  a  boat  filled  with  oarsmen  who  were 
passing  over  the  Ogeechee  from  a  Confederate  gun¬ 
boat  at  anchor  below  Fort  McAllister.  They  ran  so 

84 


Return  to  Atlanta 


near  this  gunboat  that  they  were  in  terror  for  fear 
some  noise  that  they  had  to  make  in  paddling,  or  some 
flashlight  from  the  vessel,  would  discover  them;  hut, 
surprising  to  say,  they  passed  all  obstacles,  and  soon 
after  daylight  on  the  morning  of  the  12th  they  drifted 
out  into  the  broad  bay. 

There  the  Dandelion ,  a  dispatch  boat  of  our  navy, 
discovered  the  dugout  with  its  three  weary  scouts. 
They  were  taken  on  board  and  carried  to  Port  Royal 
Harbor  to  the  flagship  Philadelphia ,  arriving  about 
eight  o’clock  the  same  morning,  and  saw  my  brief  dis¬ 
patch  put  into  the  hands  of  Rear  Admiral  Dahlgren, 
to  whom  it  was  addressed. 

Admiral  Dahlgren  reported  on  this  expedition : 
“  It  may  be  perhaps  exceeding  my  province,  but  I 
cannot  refrain  from  expressing  the  hope  that  the  de¬ 
partment  will  commend  Captain  Duncan  and  his  com¬ 
panions  to  the  Honorable  Secretary  of  War  for  some 
mark  of  approbation  for  the  success  of  establishing 
communication  between  General  Sherman  and  the 
fleet.  It  was  an  enterprise  that  required  both  skill 
and  courage.” 


85 


CHAPTER  XLI 


THE  MARCH  TO  THE  SEA;  CAPTURE  OF  FORT  McALLISTER 

AND  SAVANNAH 

GENERAL  SHERMAN  charged  me  to  open  fur¬ 
ther  communications  with  the  fleet,  and  directed 
Kilpatrick  with  his  cavalry  to  assist  me.  As  soon  as 
the  two  wings  struck  the  main  works  at  Savannah, 
Kilpatrick  set  out  to  accomplish  his  part  of  the  opera¬ 
tion.  He  crossed  the  Big  Ogeechee  at  Jenks’s  Bridge, 
and  then  went  on  and  followed  Colonel  Oliver’s  trail 
over  the  Cannouchee,  near  Bryan  Court  House.  Sher¬ 
man  directed  Kilpatrick  to  try  to  take  Fort  Mc¬ 
Allister  right  away,  as  the  garrison  probably  did  not 
exceed  200  men  with  13  guns.  Haste  was  necessary, 
as  in  many  things  our  supply  was  running  short,  and 
McAllister  was  the  only  remaining  obstacle  to  our 
communicating  with  the  fleet  and  establishing  a  new 
line  of  supply.  Kilpatrick  had  visited  me  and  repre¬ 
sented  the  necessity  of  having  infantry  support. 

This  plainly  appears  in  a  letter  of  his  to  Sherman, 
dated  December  11,  1864,  in  which  he  says :  “  I  have 

proposed  to  General  Howard  to  cross  the  Ogeechee 
with  my  command  and  a  force  of  infantry  and  take 
the  fort.  General  Howard  has  accepted  my  proposi¬ 
tion,  and  will  give  me  the  infantry  asked  for,  and  I 
will  only  await  your  permission.  I  promise  to  take 
the  fort — if  it  is  as  it  was  represented  to  me — and 

86 


The  March  to  the  Sea 


let  in  our  fleet;  at  all  events  I  will  reach  the  Sound 
and  communicate  with  the  fleet.” 

It  was  after  this  visit  of  Kilpatrick,  made  to  me 
on  his  way  over  the  Ogeechee  to  carry  out  his  in¬ 
structions,  that  I  went  in  person  to  General  Sherman 
and  represented  to  him  the  necessity  of  sending  in¬ 
fantry  to  take  the  fort.  I  asked  him,  contrary  to  his 
instructions  to  me,  which  were  to  destroy  King’s 
Bridge  utterly,  to  allow  me  to  rebuild  what  was  al¬ 
ready  demolished,  and  send  a  division  of  infantry  to 
take  Fort  McAllister. 

The  general  asked  me  which  division  I  would 
choose,  agreeing  with  me  that  it  would  be  next  to  im¬ 
possible  for  the  cavalry  alone  to  storm  the  fort.  I 
answered  him,  “  Hazen’s.”  To  this  proposition  the 
general  agreed.  Then  I  returned  to  my  headquarters 
the  same  day  and  directed  Captain  Reese  to  repair 
King’s  Bridge  and  then  issued  the  following  order: 

Headquarters  Department  and  Army 
of  the  Tennessee,  Little  Ogeechee, 
Near  Savannah,  December  12,  1864. 
Special  Field  Orders  No.  193. 

As  soon  as  King's  Bridge  is  completed,  Major  General  Oster- 
haus,  commanding  Fifteenth  Corps,  will  direct  his  second  divi¬ 
sion,  Brigadier  General  Hazen  commanding,  to  proceed  against 
Fort  McAllister  and  take  it. 

By  order  of  Major  General  O.  O.  Howard. 

Sam’l  L.  Taggart, 
Assistant  Adjutant  General. 

The  reason  I  am  thus  particular  in  reciting  the 
preliminaries  is  because  in  General  Sherman’s  mem¬ 
oirs  he  conveys  the  impression  that  he  himself  did 
what  I  as  wing  commander  began,  continued,  and  ac- 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

complished — of  course  in  complete  agreement  with 
Sherman  and  in  keeping  with  his  instructions.  I 
stood  in  the  same  relationship  to  capturing  Fort  Mc¬ 
Allister  as  General  Terry  did  to  the  taking  of  Fort 
Fisher;  it  was  my  division,  selected  by  myself,  which 
crossed  King’s  Bridge,  repaired  the  bridge  under  my 
instructions,  and  then  proceeded  to  the  fort.  And  it 
was  my  order  of  December  12th  which  directed 
Hazen’s  division  “  to  proceed  against  Fort  McAllister 
and  take  it.”  This  does  not  in  any  way  derogate 
from  the  honor  of  the  general  in  chief,  under  whose 
instructions  to  open  communication  with  the  fleet  I 
was  acting. 

On  the  13tli  everybody  was  ready;  Hazen’s  divi¬ 
sion  crossed  over  to  the  west  bank  of  the  Ogeechee, 
starting  at  daylight,  and  reached  the  vicinity  of  Mc¬ 
Allister  about  eleven  o’clock.  Hazen  captured  a  con¬ 
siderable  picket  of  Confederates  within  a  mile  of  the 
fort,  and  he  judiciously  caused  them  to  reveal  the 
whereabouts  of  the  torpedoes  which  were  buried  be¬ 
neath  the  roads. 

It  took  some  time  to  dig  them  out;  for  of  course 
the  men,  after  locating  them,  were  obliged  to  work 
with  extreme  caution.  Hazen  then  left  eight  of  his 
regiments  as  a  reserve  at  that  point;  then  slowly 
worked  his  way  with  the  remainder  to  within  600 
yards  of  the  work,  and  there  extended  his  main  body 
into  line  and  pushed  out  his  skirmishers  in  advance 
with  instructions  to  creep  up  toward  the  fort  under 
cover  till  they  could  approach  near  enough  to  watch 
the  gunners  through  the  embrasures  and,  if  possible, 
to  prevent  them  from  firing  their  heavy  pieces. 

All  the  bottom  lands  to  the  right  of  the  fort  were 
very  marshy,  intersected  with  streams  which  con- 

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The  March  to  the  Sea 


nected  with  the  wide  Ogeechee.  His  deployment  was 
necessarily  slow  and  difficult,  and,  strange  to  say,  it 
took  him  till  after  half-past  four  in  the  afternoon  to 
get  every  man  in  position  as  he  desired.  The  whole 
command,  officers  and  men,  understood  exactly  what 
they  were  to  do.  At  last  the  bugle  was  sounded  for 
the  impulse,  “  and  at  precisely  five  o’clock  the  fort 
was  carried.” 

Hazen  acted  very  wisely  when  he  gave  instructions 
to  do  what  all  infantry  commanders  are  now  obliged 
to  do :  use  thin  lines.  He  made  his  as  thin  as  he  could, 
the  result  of  which  was  that  none  of  his  soldiers  were 
hit  by  the  garrison  until  they  were  very  near.  Of 
course,  at  close  quarters  the  fighting  between  men  of 
equal  determination  was  fierce  and  bloody. 

Not  far  outside  the  works  other  torpedoes  were 
encountered,  many  of  which  were  exploded  as  the  feet 
of  the  men  struck  them,  in  many  instances  blowing 
and  scattering  the  men  in  fragments. 

Hazen’s  last  clause  in  his  story  is  graphic  indeed. 
“  The  line  moved  on  without  checking,  over,  under, 
and  through  abatis,  ditches,  palisading,  and  parapets, 
fighting  the  garrison  through  the  fort  to  their  bomb- 
proofs,  from  which  they  still  fought,  and  only  suc¬ 
cumbed  as  each  man  was  individually  overpowered.” 
Twenty-four  of  Hazen’s  officers  and  men  were  killed 
and  110  officers  and  men  wounded  in  this  assault. 
They  captured,  including  the  killed,  250  men  and  of¬ 
ficers,  24  pieces  of  ordnance,  10  tons  of  ammunition, 
quantities  of  food,  small  arms,  and  the  animals  and 
equipments  of  a  light  battery,  horses  and  officers,  and 
private  stores  in  abundance  which  had  been  placed 
within  Fort  McAllister  for  safety. 

The  morning  in  which  Hazen  left  King’s  Bridge, 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

December  13th,  I  joined  Sherman,  and  taking  with  me 
a  few  members  of  my  staff  we  went  down  the  left  bank 
of  the  Ogeechee  as  far  as  Dr.  Cheve’s  rice  mill.  On  the 
roof,  which  was  but  little  inclined,  our  signal  officers 
had  secured  a  good  position,  and  were  in  communica¬ 
tion  with  Hazels  signal  officers  near  McAllister  at 
the  time  of  our  arrival.  The  battery  of  DeGress  had 
preceded  us  to  the  rice  mill  and  taken  a  position 
where  the  commander  thought  he  could  reach  the  fort 
with  his  projectiles. 

His  guns  were  of  large  size — the  twenty-pounder- 
Parrott.  The  distance  appeared  to  be  three  miles. 
DeGress’s  firing  could  not  do  much  damage,  but  was 
a  diversion,  and  had  for  its  main  object  to  draw  the 
attention  of  the  fleet.  For  hours  we  watched  all  the 
operations  as  well  as  we  could.  The  signal  telescope 
helped  us  to  an  occasional  revelation,  which  kept 
down  Sherman’s  impatience.  About  noon  the  cannon 
of  McAllister  commenced  slowly  firing  toward  the 
land,  and  shortly  we  could  see  puffs  of  smoke,  which 
indicated  what  Hazen’s  skirmishers  were  doing.  A 
little  later  we  caught  sight  of  a  steamer  in  the  offing 
below  the  fort.  It  was  near  the  bay  or  broad  mouth 
of  the  Ogeechee. 

Still  later  in  the  afternoon  our  signal  communica¬ 
tion  was  perfected  and  connected  with  Hazen  himself. 
He  said  he  had  invested  the  fort  already.  He  had 
also  caught  sight  of  the  steamer  below.  Sherman’s 
answering  signal  emphasized  the  importance  of  carry¬ 
ing  the  fort  by  assault  that  very  day.  When  the 
steamer  was  near  enough  it  drew  the  fire  of  the  fort 
upon  itself.  Shortly  after  this,  Captain  McClintock 
and  Lieutenant  Sampson,  our  signal  officers,  descried 
the  moving  flag.  They  talked  with  the  vessel,  which 

90 


The  March  to  the  Sea 


they  reported  to  be  a  tug  sent  out  by  Admiral  Dahl- 
gren  and  General  Foster  for  the  purpose  of  opening 
communication  with  us.  It  was  at  this  time,  while  we 
were  communicating  with  the  tug,  that  we  all  noticed 
an  increased  fire  toward  the  fort,  and  our  flags  in 
men’s  hands,  passing  the  obstructions.  They  crossed 
the  ditch,  then  over  the  parapet;  when  we  next  saw 
them,  the  men  were  firing  upward  into  the  air  from 
right  to  left,  and  the  sound  of  their  cheering  came  to 
us  across  the  water.  That,  indeed,  was  a  gallant  as¬ 
sault!  Imagine  the  satisfaction  of  our  watching 
party  at  the  rice  mill.  The  instant  that  we  received 
the  sure  word  that  the  fort  was  ours  we  ran  for  a  small 
rowboat  that  was  close  at  hand  and  proceeded  as  fast 
a^  the  oarsman  could  speed  us  down  the  Ogeechee  to 
the  vicinity  of  Fort  McAllister. 

Shortly  after  landing  we  saw  an  ambulance,  with 
the  mules  hauling  it,  run  upon  a  hidden  torpedo. 
Mules,  ambulance,  and  men  were  blown  into  the  air. 
This  sight  indicated  to  us  some  of  the  dangers  which 
our  brave  men  had  had  to  encounter.  We  found 
Hazen  very  happy  over  his  victory.  Ilis  prisoner, 
Major  Anderson,  and  the  other  Confederates  who,  we 
saw,  were  not  so  happy,  yet  surely  they  had  made  a 
gallant  defense. 

Hazen  very  hospitably  entertained  us  after  our  ar¬ 
rival,  and  then  accompanied  us  to  the  fort.  We  soon 
took  leave  of  him ;  after  a  little  delay  we  secured  what 
Sherman  called  a  yawl,  and  were  rowed  down  the 
river  some  three  miles,  when  we  reached  the  tug.  It 
proved  to  be  the  dispatch  boat  Dandelion ,  commanded 
by  Captain  Williamson,  of  the  navy.  Our  welcome 
was  hearty  and  the  exchange  of  good  tidings  rapid. 

I  learned  for  the  first  time  that  Captain  William 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

Duncan  and  his  companions  whom  I  had  sent  down 
the  Ogeecliee  from  the  Savannah  Canal  had  succeeded 
in  avoiding  all  dangers  and  hindrances,  and  had 
reached  the  fleet  the  morning  of  the  12tli  inst.  Ad¬ 
miral  Dahlgren  had  received  their  communications 
and  had  forwarded  them  to  Washington.  Sherman, 
as  he  was  wont  to  do,  immediately  called  for  writing 
materials  and  wrote  hastily  several  dispatches. 

As  soon  as  they  were  completed  we  commenced  our 
return  journey,  the  Dandelion  pushing  us  up  as  near 
McAllister  as  was  safe  from  torpedoes.  On  landing 
from  our  boat  we  found  our  way  back  to  Hazen’s 
quarters  and  encamped  in  a  rough  way  after  the  sol¬ 
dier’s  fashion  for  the  night.  Yet  Sherman  was  hardly 
asleep  when  he  was  awakened  by  a  messenger  from 
the  fleet.  General  Foster  had  come  within  safe  dis¬ 
tance  and  begged  Sherman  to  join  him.  Foster  was 
too  lame  from  an  old  wound  to  come  ashore. 

The  general,  with  his  usual  cheeriness  and  kind¬ 
ness  of  heart,  sprang  up,  and  walked  a  mile  or  more 
to  the  boat  landing  and  was  taken  to  General  Foster’s 
vessel.  I  remained  with  ITazen,  and  went  back  the 
next  morning,  December  14th,  to  my  headquarters,  then 
on  Anderson’s  plantation,  near  the  little  Ogeecliee,  to 
make  further  efforts  for  the  capture  of  Savannah. 

In  conjunction  with  Admiral  Dahlgren  I  recon- 
noitered  all  the  southern  approaches  by  water  as  well 
as  by  land  to  Savannah.  Sherman  in  his  letter  of 
December  17th,  addressed  to  Hardee,  commanding  in 
Savannah,  indicates  the  opening  of  complete  supplies 
for  his  own  army  and  the  bringing  together  of  heavy 
siege  guns;  he  claimed  to  have  control  already  of 
every  avenue. 

Sherman  further  declared  that  he  was  justified  in 

92 


The  March  to  the  Sea 


demanding  the  surrender ;  he  would  wait  a  reasonable 
time  for  Hardee’s  answer  before  opening  with  heavy 
ordnance.  He  offered  liberal  terms,  but  if  these  were 
rejected  lie  might  resort  to  the  harshest  measures. 
He  said  that  he  would  make  little  effort  to  restrain 
his  army,  burning  to  avenge  a  great  National  wrong, 
which  they  attributed  to  Savannah  and  other  large 
cities  so  prominent  in  dragging  our  country  into  civil 
war.  He  finished  by  inclosing  a  copy  of  Hood’s  de¬ 
mand  for  the  surrender  of  Resaca,  where  Hood  prom- 
ised  no  quarter. 

Hardee’s  re}3ly,  of  the  same  date,  is  dignified.  He 
showed  Sherman’s  idea  of  comxhete  investment  to  be 
incorrect,  for  there  was  one  channel  beyond  the  Sa¬ 
vannah,  leading  to  Charleston,  not  yet  closed.  “  Your 
demand  for  the  surrender  of  Savannah  and  its  de¬ 
pendent  forts  is  refused.”  He  closed  with  these 
words :  “  I  have  hitherto  conducted  the  military  ox3era- 
tions  intrusted  to  my  direction  in  direct  accordance 
with  the  rules  of  civilized  warfare,  and  I  should  deeply 
regret  the  aclox3tion  of  any  course  by  you  that  may 
force  me  to  deviate  from  them  in  the  future.” 

As  soon  as  Hardee’s  reply  reached  Sherman  he 
let  us  go  on  with  our  prex3arations  for  assaulting  the 
works.  Slocum  pushed  a  command  across  to  an 
island  in  the  Savannah  River  which  more  closely 
threatened  the  last  of  Hardee’s  communications. 
Then  next,  on  the  19th,  he  landed  a  brigade  on  the 
South  Carolina  shore. 

Hardee’s  dispatch  from  Hardeeville,  December 
21st,  to  His  Excellency,  Jefferson  Davis,  exx3lains  the 
result.  He  says :  “  On  the  19th  the  enemy  forced  a 

landing  on  the  South  Carolina  side,  so  near  my  com¬ 
munications  that  to  save  the  garrison  it  became  neces- 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

sary  to  give  up  the  city.  Its  evacuation  was  success¬ 
fully  accomplished  last  night.  .  .  .”  Speaking  of  his 
force  Hardee  adds :  “  Summed  up,  it  was  over  9,089.” 

Truly  it  was  a  small  force  to  have  given  us  so  much 
trouble;  but  Savannah  almost  defended  itself  by  its 
bays,  bogs,  and  swamps  all  around,  leaving  only  cause¬ 
ways  to  be  defended.  I  think  we  would  have  carried 
the  works,  for  the  assault  would  have  been  simulta¬ 
neous  from  every  quarter  like  that  of  Hazen.  We 
had  prepared  light  fascines  of  twigs  and  of  straw  in 
plenty  to  fill  the  ditches  before  our  assaulting  col¬ 
umns,  and  were  ready  with  every  modern  device  to 
accomplish  our  purpose;  but  I  am  glad  indeed  that 
the  Confederate  authorities  agreed  with  Hardee  to 
save  their  garrison  and  withdraw  it  in  season. 

A  long  detention  would  have  been  unfavorable  to 
us  in  the  opening  of  our  next  campaign. 

There  was  a  little  contention,  a  sort  of  friendly 
rivalry,  as  to  what  troops  had  gone  first  into  Savan¬ 
nah.  Gerry’s  division  of  Slocum’s  army  at  last  car¬ 
ried  off  the  palm. 

General  Sherman  took  up  his  headquarters  with 
an  English  gentleman,  Mr.  Charles  Green,  who  had 
very  generously  tendered  his  home  for  this  purpose. 
Sherman  had  hardly  reached  the  city  and  become  set¬ 
tled  in  his  temporary  home  before  he  sent  to  Mr.  Lin¬ 
coln  the  dispatch  which  was  so  widely  published,  viz. : 

Savannah,  Ga.,  December  22,  1864. 
To  His  Excellency ,  President  Lincoln ,  Washington,  D.  C. 

I  beg  to  present  to  you  as  a  Christmas  gift  the  city  of  Savan¬ 
nah,  with  150  guns  and  plenty  of  ammunition;  also  about 
25,000  bales  of  cotton. 


94 


W.  T.  Sherman, 
Major  General. 


The  March  to  the  Sea 


I  took  up  my  headquarters  and  then  wrote  home: 
“  I  want  to  see  the  loving  faces,  yours  and  the  chil¬ 
dren^,  so  much  that  I  am  really  homesick.  I  went  to 
General  Sherman  and  told  him:  ‘  Now  let  me  oft.  I 
don’t  ask  but  two  days  at  home.’  He  answered :  ‘  Gen¬ 
eral,  I  would  give  a  million  of  dollars,  if  I  had  it,  to 
be  with  my  children.  Would  you  do  more  than  that?  ’ 
I  told  him  I  should  say  nothing  more;  and  I  have 
given  up  for  the  present.” 

It  was  only  four  days  after  the  writing  of  that 
letter  before  a  new  and  more  difficult  campaign  of 
the  Carolinas  opened  before  us. 

We  remained  in  comparative  quiet  at  Savannah 
till  January  1,  1865. 

On  New  Year’s  Day  Sherman  took  me  aside  and 
said  that  we  were  to  move  on  through  the  Carolinas 
as  soon  as  possible.  He  had  a  map  of  the  coast  in  his 
hand.  Opening  it  he  showed  me  Robertsville  in 
South  Carolina,  and  also  Pocotaligo  Junction,  on  the 
Savannah  &  Charleston  Railroad. 

It  was  not  far  from  Pocotaligo  that  the  Con¬ 
federates,  including  G.  W.  Smith’s  Macon  contingent, 
had  met  Foster’s  and  Saxton’s  Union  men  and  de¬ 
feated  them  while  we  were  on  the  march  from  Atlanta 
to  the  sea. 

Sherman  said  that  he  wanted  me  to  move  my  wing 
of  the  army  by  water  over  to  the  Island  of  Beaufort, 
S.  C.,  and  go  thence  northward,  cross  an  arm  of  the 
sea,  secure  a  landing,  and  then  proceed  to  Pocotaligo. 
I  must  time  myself  so  as  to  get  there  by  January  15th 
(inst.).  u  Can  you  do  it?  ”  There  were  too  many  ele¬ 
ments  in  the  problem  presented  to  be  solved  offhand. 

After,  Yankeelike,  asking  some  questions,  I  said 
that  the  time  was  rather  short,  “  but  we  would  do  the 

95 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

best  we  could.”  He  assured  me  that  General  Fos¬ 
ter’s  quartermaster  would  give  me  all  the  water  trans¬ 
ports  which  he  could  command,  and  that  Admiral 
Dalilgren  would  carry  over  all  the  men  and  material 
which  he  could  handily  take  on  and  off  his  naval 
vessels. 

That  same  day  I  went  to  call  on  General  Blair,  and 
happened  on  a  New  Year’s  festival.  It  was  a  jolly 
table  that  I  found  with  Blair  that  day,  he  doing  the 
honors  of  the  occasion.  My  coming  seemed  to  sur¬ 
prise  the  party;  suddenly  all  arose  before  me  in  a  stiff 
and  dignified  style,  as  cadets  at  command  in  a  mess 
hall  after  a  meal. 

I  apologized  for  the  interruption,  called  Blair 
aside,  explained  the  coming  orders  and  the  contem¬ 
plated  movements,  and  bowed  myself  out.  It  was  in 
this  informal  wav  that  Sherman  often  set  on  foot  the 
most  important  projects. 

I  find  in  my  record  that  very  day,  January  1,  1865, 
a  letter  from  myself  to  General  Easton,  Sherman’s 
chief  quartermaster.  Easton  was  an  old  officer,  and 
inclined  to  be  formal  and  dignified  with  my  chief  quar¬ 
termaster.  At  least  it  was  so  reported  to  me  with  com¬ 
plaint,  hence  the  letter: 

General:  I  regret  exceedingly  to  trouble  you,  but  I  wish 
you  to  know  the  exact  state  of  things.  It  is  reported  to  me 
by  Major  General  Osterhaus  that  his  artillery  horses  are  dying 
at  the  picket  rope  of  actual  starvation,  and  other  officers  re¬ 
port  that  public  and  private  horses  of  the  command  are  with¬ 
out  forage.  Must  this  be  allowed  when  forage  is  within  six 
miles  of  us?  Is  there  no  expedient  we  can  resort  to  in  order 
to  get  a  supply?  Are  there  no  inlets  where  we  can  land  forage? 
Are  there  no  flats  or  small  boats  in  which  we  can  bring  grain 
ashore?  Be  assured,  general,  that  my  officers  and  men  and 

96 


The  March  to  the  Sea 

myself  are  at  your  service,  and  willing  to  work  night  and  day. 
I  am  held  responsible  by  my  command  for  these  things.  My 
only  alternative  is  to  apply  to  you.  I  do  not  wish  to  oppose 
you,  but  to  assist  you  in  every  way  in  my  power. 

Easton  acted  quickly  and  well.  I  felt  in  the  outset 
in  view  of  the  Carolina  campaign  that  it  was  to  be  the 
most  trying  of  any  which  we  had  hitherto  undertaken. 
Our  enemies  would  increase  as  we  advanced  north¬ 
ward.  Food  and  forage  would  be  destroyed  before  ns, 
the  swamps  would  be  worse  than  in  Georgia,  and  other 
troubles  would  multiply.  And,  surely,  it  was  hard  to 
commence  a  sea  voyage  with  only  vessels  enough  at 
best  to  take  over  to  Beaufort  a  tenth  of  my  army  at  a 
trip. 

About  this  time  I  received  the  following  letter 
from  my  friend,  the  distinguished  Rev.  E.  B.  Webb, 
D.D.,  of  Boston,  written  the  day  before  Christmas : 

How  glad  we  were  when  your  scout  (Captain  Duncan)  ar¬ 
rived  down  the  river  and  communicated  with  the  fleet!  We 
followed  you  daily  with  our  prayers,  and  yet  we  can  hardly 
say  “  followed,”  for  we  did  not  know  for  a  long  time  where  you 
were  going.  Our  generals  and  our  Government  seemed  to  have 
found  out  the  secret  of  keeping  their  own  secrets. 

You  just  moved  off  beyond  the  circle  of  our  horizon  into 
the  unknown,  and  left  us  to  wonder,  to  doubt,  to  believe,  to 
guess,  but — God  be  praised — you  are  out  of  the  woods,  in  the 
sense  that  we  .  .  .  hear  from  you  almost  every  day. 

Officers  and  men  were  fearless  and  resolute.  They 
had  come  to  be  robust  in  health — had  well  developed 
muscular  force  in  themselves.  What  Sherman  or¬ 
dered  they  were  ready  to  undertake,  not  only  with¬ 
out  opposition,  but  with  hearty  good  will.  The  ves¬ 
sels  furnished  us  were  too  few  and  the  water  delays 

97 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  0.  O.  Howard 

as  bothersome  as  usual;  but  my  Seventeenth  Corps 
was  carried  over  to  Beaufort  in  reasonably  quick  time. 

Blair  began  the  actual  movement  of  it  January  3, 
1865,  and  by  the  11th  his  entire  corps  (the  Seven¬ 
teenth)  and  one  division  of  Logan’s  (the  Fifteenth) 
had  arrived  and  were  disembarked  at  Beaufort,  S.  C. 

While  the  sea  voyages  were  progressing  I  was  able 
to  sj^end  most  of  my  time  at  Beaufort.  General  Ru¬ 
fus  Saxton  had  his  headquarters  there.  He  was  quite 
domesticated  amid  a  new  Northern  community  and 
multitudes  of  negroes  that  were  peopling  that  part 
of  the  seacoast  which  had  come  into  our  possession. 
General  and  Mrs.  Saxton  gave  me  a  sweet  home  and 
cordial  welcome  with  them  for  a  few  days.  I  visited 
at  Beaufort,  St.  Helena,  and  other  neighboring  inlands 
the  first  colored  schools  that  I  had  seen.  Some  of  them 
were  excellent.  Of  these  schools  at  that  time  I  wrote : 

Yesterday  (January  19,  1865)  I  visited  five  colored  schools, 
where  I  found  the  children  sparkling  with  intelligence,  the 
teachers  noble  women  who  had  devoted  their  strength  to  this 
work.  One  school  bears  the  look  of  our  best  New  England 
schools;  the  order,  the  reading,  the  arithmetic,  and  the  singing 
strike  you  with  wonder.  The  “  America  ”  and  “  Rally  Round  the 
Flag,  Boys/’  ring  out  with  such  heart  and  harmony  as  to  imbue 
you  with  enthusiasm.  You  can't  help  saying,  That  is  not  the 
stuff  of  which  to  make  slaves. 

On  St.  Helena’s  Island  Miss  Towne  and  the  three 
Misses  Murry,  who  wrere  wealthy  ladies,  devoted  them¬ 
selves  and  their  income  to  this  work.  After  describ¬ 
ing  the  completeness  and  convenience  of  the  structure 
for  the  school,  I  added: 

They  sing  on  the  right,  then  on  the  left,  and  then  together; 
and  such  singing!  Little  ones  about  three  feet  high  sing  away 
in  perfect  time  and  with  great  zest  and  joy. 

98 


The  March  to  the  Sea 


Mrs.  General  and  Mrs.  Captain  Saxton  took  me  to  ride  yes¬ 
terday  afternoon,  and  they  said  it  was  done  to  take  me  away 
from  official  duties.  We  went  to  visit  two  negro  schools  on 
Beaufort  Island  in  full  operation.  We  found  the  children  quite 
as  far  advanced  as  white  children  of  the  same  age.  There  are 
two  white  teachers,  one  for  each  school;  a  Miss  Botume,  of  Bos¬ 
ton,  and  a  Miss  Danby,  also  from  Massachusetts  .  .  .  The 
weather  is  cool,  but  not  cold;  really  delightful.  These  old 
trees  are  green  (in  January)  and  luxuriant.  Mrs.  Saxton  is  a 
lovely  lady,  and  wants  to  see  Mrs.  Howard.  General  Saxton 
has  taken  me  personally  right  to  his  house,  given  me  a  room, 
and  allowed  me  to  enjoy  the  luxuries  of  his  table. 

One  Sunday  I  addressed  a  little  negro  Sunday  school.  As 
I  was  about  to  close,  I  asked  if  any  little  boy  or  girl  could 
tell  me  who  was  the  Saviour  of  the  world.  One  bright  lad 
held  up  his  hand,  and  said:  “Yes,  sah!  I  ken  tell;  I  ken 
tell ! ^  “Well,  who  is  He?”  “Abum  Linkum,  sah;  Abum 
Linkum.” 

Our  soldiers  were  so  many,  needed  so  many  sup¬ 
plies,  and  felt  themselves  at  last  on  South  Carolina 
soil,  that  a  lawless  spirit  came  over  them  and  many 
complaints  came  to  me  of  their  doings.  They  were 
just  then  inclined  to  make  “  forced  loans  ”  and  to  live 
on  the  country.  The  Northern  civilian  immigrants  to 
the  Sea  Islands  seemed  to  be  most  hurt,  but  the 
negroes  for  the  most  part  would  give  them  anything 
they  asked  for. 

Writh  Blair’s  corps,  at  about  twelve  o’clock  midnight 
(January  13,  1865),  we  set  out  for  what  we  called 
“  Whale  Branch.”  One  brigade  of  Logan’s  command 
followed  Blair’s.  It  was  an  all-night  march.  Blair, 
now  habitually  using  canvas  boats,  sent  his  pontoon 
bridge  and  a  guard  ahead,  and  so,  when  we  arrived, 
we  found  that  some  of  his  men  had  rowed  across  the 
branch,  captured  the  Confederate  pickets,  and  built  a 

99 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

bridgehead  to  protect  the  men  while  they  were  laying 
the  bridge.  I  wrote  to  Sherman : 

Our  bridge  was  so  poor,  on  account  of  the  rotten  canvas, 
that  many  delays  occurred  in  the  crossing  and  closing  up.  It 
had  to  be  pieced  out  on  the  enemy’s  side,  and  frequently  broke 
near  that  shore. 

When  I  came  near  the  ferry,  about  dawn,  I  heard 
some  singing  and  shouting  coming  from  a  number  of 
negro  huts  not  far  off.  I  went  thither  to  see  what 
the  negroes  who  filled  the  cabins  were  doing.  They 
were  much  excited;  both  joy  and  fear  appeared  to 
possess  them;  they  would  pray  and  sing  and  dance 
and  shout  indiscriminately.  They  had  kept  up  that 
delicious  exercise  the  whole  night.  Indeed,  to  them, 
more  ignorant  than  any  I  had  hitherto  met,  the  day 
of  jubilee  had  come. 


( 


100 


CHAPTER  XLII 


MARCH  THROUGH  THE  CARO  LINAS ;  SAVANNAH,  GA.,  TO 

COLUMBIA,  S.  C. 

OUR  first  check  was  at  Garden’s  Corner,  where 
Leggett’s  division,  being  on  the  lead,  saw  a 
well-constructed  outwork  having  a  long  parapet  be¬ 
yond  an  intervening  swampy  plateau.  Here  I  saw  a 
stretch  of  land  without  grass,  apparently  soft  clay. 
Little  by  little  I  ventured  out,  trying  the  ground  be¬ 
fore  charging  my  men  over  it.  My  aid,  Captain 
Beebe,  followed  me.  That  morning  I  had  accidentally 
thrown  a  civilian  coat  over  my  shoulders,  so  that  the 
enemy  behind  the  parapet  permitted  me  to  advance 
some  distance  without  firing.  Finding  the  ground 
firm  enough,  I  turned  back.  One  sharpshooter  then 
fired.  His  three  or  four  bullets  stirred  up  the  dust 
rather  too  close  to  me  and  I  took  off  my  hat  and  made 
him  as  polite  a  bow  as  I  could  for  his  charming  salute; 
then,  with  Beebe,  I  disappeared  behind  our  brave  skir¬ 
mishers,  who  were  watching  and  cheering  in  the  front 
edge  of  a  neighboring  wood. 

General  Leggett  had  meanwhile  succeeded  in  turn¬ 
ing  the  entire  fort.  As  soon  as  this  was  done  the 
Confederates  evacuated  the  work  and  ran  rapidly  to 
the  rear  toward  Pocotaligo.  The  Confederate  force 
here  encountered  was  but  a  rear  guard,  probably  not 
exceeding  two  regiments  of  infantry  with  two  pieces 
of  artillery.  We  were  for  a  short  time  in  rapid  pur- 

101 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

suit  at  Stony  Creek,  but  relieved  the  hindrance  and 
made  a  rush  for  the  railroad.  We  did  not  quite  se¬ 
cure  it  till  the  next  morning,  encountering  Fort  Poco- 
taligo,  which,  like  most  prepared  intrenchments  in  that 
neighborhood,  had  a  troublesome  swamp  directly  in 
front,  and  was  a  well-constructed  inclosed  work  with 
a  parapet. 

Our  men,  rapidly  approaching  from  three  sides, 
skirmished  up  very  close  and  caused  a  fire  from  the 
fort  from  many  pieces  of  artillery,  and  from  mus¬ 
ketry  supports.  The  garrison  appeared  to  be  panicky 
and  fired  rapidly  enough,  but  spasmodically,  without 
aim.  Our  men  cried  out  to  them,  “  You’d  better  get 
out;  we  are  the  Fifteenth  Corps!” 

We  had  several  wounded  and  some  killed,  includ¬ 
ing  two  commissioned  officers.  The  artillery  fire 
from  the  fort  and  some  batteries  of  ours  replying, 
caused  a  noise  like  that  of  thunder,  very  startling  in 
that  dark,  woody  country;  it  continued  far  into  the 
night. 

At  dawn  in  the  morning,  January  15,  1865,  we 
found  that  the  Confederates  had  abandoned  the  fort. 
I  felt  grateful  to  them,  because  the  artillery  position 
was  a  strong  one.  There  were  emplacements  for 
twenty-four  cannon,  and  the  marsh,  excepting  by  a  few 
paths,  was  impassable.  It  would  have  cost  many  lives 
to  have  taken  the  fort  by  storm. 

The  15th  was  Sunday,  and  I  was  glad  the  enemy 
had  left,  for  I  was  always  reluctant,  unless  necessity 
compelled  it,  to  open  an  engagement  on  that  day. 
Our  foes  had  swept  off  across  the  Salkehatchie  River, 
destroying  the  bridges  after  them.  The  15th,  we  re¬ 
member,  was  the  dav  that  Sherman  had  desired  me 
to  take  possession  of  Pocotaligo ;  so  one  can  imagine 

102 


March  Through  the  Carolinas 

my  gratification  to  have  cleared  the  field  and  put  my 
feet  safely  upon  the  iron  at  the  railroad  crossing  on 
that  very  day. 

Slocum  was  to  have  been  at  Robertsville  at  the 
same  time,  but  the  rapid  rise  in  the  Savannah  River 
prevented  him  from  crossing  at  Sister’s  Ferry  till 
after  a  long  delay  in  laying  bridges.  I  had  not  heard 
from  him  and  I  tried  in  vain  by  my  scouts  and  cavalry 
to  open  communication.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
in  my  army  there  were  seven  grand  divisions;  five  of 
them  came  around  by  the  sea  and  across  Beaufort 
Island,  closing  up  upon  us  at  Pocotaligo.  In  order  to 
hasten  our  concentration  I  caused  one  of  the  two  re¬ 
maining  divisions,  John  E.  Smith’s,  to  leave  Savannah 
by  the  way  of  the  Union  causeway.  Smith  escorted  by 
this  route  many  of  our  horses,  mules,  and  cattle,  which 
could  not  be  taken  over  by  sea  for  want  of  vessels. 

Corse,  with  the  other  division,  followed  Slocum  up 
the  Savannah,  and  came  to  us  after  Slocum  had 
cleared  the  way. 

In  a  diary  that  fell  into  my  hands  the  small  loss 
that  we  suffered  was  contrasted  with  the  losses  of  the 
previous  commanders  and  I  was  highly  complimented. 

Slocum’s  delay  to  get  to  Robertsville  was  very 
favorable  to  my  wing,  for  it  enabled  us  to  bring  up 
our  clothing  and  other  supplies,  and  be  better  pre¬ 
pared  for  a  forward  movement.  I  issued  the  follow¬ 
ing  order  (a  sample  for  our  campaign)  for  the  next 
move : 


Near  Pocotaligo,  S.  C.,  January  28,  1865. 
Special  Field  Orders  No.  25. 

1.  The  following  preliminary  movements  will  take  place  to¬ 
morrow.  The  division  of  General  Giles  A.  Smith  will  move  to¬ 
ward  the  road  which  runs  along  the  west  bank  of  the  Salke- 

103 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

hatchie,  and  encamp  preparatory  to  a  forward  movement  on 
that  road  Monday  morning. 

All  wagons  of  the  Seventeenth  Corps  will  be  moved  and  parked 
so  as  to  leave  the  road  from  Pocotaligo  to  McPhersonville  clear 
for  the  Fifteenth  Corps  at  9  a.m.  Monday.  The  bridge  train 
will  move  to-morrow,  following  General  Giles  A.  Smith,  and 
encamp  in  rear  of  him. 

2.  Movement  for  Monday:  The  Seventeenth  Corps,  Major 
General  Blair,  will  commence  the  forward  movement  by  9  a.m., 
ascending  the  Salkehatchie  on  the  west  bank,  making,  if  pos¬ 
sible,  fifteen  miles  from  Pocotaligo.  The  Fifteenth  Corps, 
Major  General  Logan,  will  move  forward  to  Haywardsville, 
moving  General  John  E.  Smith’s  division  by  the  bridge  road 
between  Pocotaligo  and  the  creek  if  practicable.  Department 
headquarters  (General  Howard’s)  will  follow  the  leading  divi¬ 
sion  of  the  Seventeenth  Corps.  .  .  . 

Particular  pains  will  be  taken  to  organize  foraging  parties 
for  each  brigade,  battery,  headquarters,  and  detachment  not  to 
exceed  in  number  an  actual  necessity.  .  .  . 

The  engineer  regiment  after  reaching  Garden’s  Corner  will 
take  the  right-hand  roads,  and  will  follow  the  Seventeenth 
Corps.  The  bridge  train  will  be  kept  with  the  Seventeenth 
Corps  for  the  present.  .  .  . 

This  order  was  complied  with  in  all  its  details. 

It  was  a  winter  campaign.  In  spite  of  the  swamps, 
that  were  numerous,  we  found  the  roads  often  sandy 
and  fairly  good,  at  least  in  apj:>earance.  The  timber 
was  abundant,  pine  almost  without  exception  pre¬ 
vailing. 

The  nights  were  cold,  the  thermometer  not  de¬ 
scending  very  low;  but  the  dampness  and  chill  af¬ 
fected  us  unfavorably,  and  so  demanded  warm  cloth¬ 
ing  and  abundant  night  cover. 

While  Slocum  with  his  wing  was  struggling  on 
over  similar  roads  beyond  my  left,  I  was  sweeping  up 

104 


March  Through  the  Carolinas 

the  left  bank  of  the  Salkehatchie.  On  February  1st 
the  part  of  my  command  near  me  came  upon  a  tribu¬ 
tary  of  the  main  river.  This  creek  and  the  broad, 
watery  approach  were  called  the  “  Whippy  Swamp.” 

There  were  pine  woods  everywhere — outside  and 
in  the  swamps;  and  bordering  the  creeks  we  found 
the  cypress  trees,  often  very  close  together.  Oc¬ 
casionally,  wide  stretches  would  appear  like  good 
ground,  but  prove  on  trial  to  be  merely  troublesome 
quicksands  with  a  deceitful  surface.  Even  along  the 
roads,  as  our  men  said,  “  the  bottom  falls  out  ”  before 
many  wagons  have  passed  over,  so  that  we  quickly 
corduroyed  by  covering  the  surface  with  small  pines. 
Thousands  of  men  worked  at  this. 

Passing  through  this  sort  of  country,  Confederate 
cavalry,  now  quite  numerous,  obstructed  every  cause¬ 
way,  held  us  in  check  as  long  as  they  could,  and  then 
destroyed  the  lagoon  bridges  before  every  column. 
Sometimes  these  bridges  would  be  sixty  or  seventy  feet 
long,  and  when  burned  caused  much  delay  for  replace¬ 
ment.  Now  and  then  the  roads  were  filled  with  fallen 
timbers  for  miles,  entangling  as  the  tree  tops  came  to¬ 
gether  from  each  side  of  the  road.  I  followed  my  skir¬ 
mishers  near  Whippy  Swamp  to  get  as  quick  a  view 
as  I  could  of  the  situation,  for  the  Confederates  were 
in  force  on  the  other  side  of  the  swamp  creek. 

As  we  halted  at  a  point  a  little  higher  than  the 
road,  an  artillery  officer  of  my  staff  standing  near 
me  was  struck  with  a  bullet  just  under  his  chin.  The 
bullet  cut  his  windpipe  and  one  of  the  arteries. 
Fortunately  for  him,  I  caught  the  wound  with  my 
hand  and  stopped  the  flow  of  the  blood.  The  officer, 
Lieutenant  Taylor,  at  first  stunned  by  the  blow,  quickly 
came  to  himself,  and,  aided  by  his  comrades,  succeeded 

105 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

in  getting  to  the  surgeon  and  securing  prompt  relief. 
A  companion  said  of  Taylor:  “We  hope  he  will  re¬ 
cover.  He  is  a  brave  and  good  boy  and  a  pet  with  all 
here.  All  feel  his  misfortune  very  deeply.”  He  did 
recover  after  some  months. 

In  this  section  our  supplies  were  not  very  abun¬ 
dant  from  the  plantations,  for  there  were  but  few  of 
such,  and  from  many  farms  the  produce  had  been 
hastily  removed  to  the  east  bank  of  the  Salkekatchie, 
and  the  houses  were  for  the  most  part  without  oc¬ 
cupants. 

The  Confederates  were  very  particular  to  drive  off 
all  horses  and  cattle.  Notwithstanding  the  impov¬ 
erishment,  natural  and  artificial,  our  diligent  foragers 
managed  to  discover  and  bring  in  a  considerable 
supply. 

The  crossing  of  the  Salkehatchie  was  at  last  made 
at  several  points;  but  in  my  immediate  front  I  made 
a  demonstration  toward  Broxton’s  Bridge,  not  intend¬ 
ing  to  cross  there,  because  the  enemy  was  at  that 
point  better  prepared  to  receive  us,  but  hoped  some¬ 
how  to  make  the  main  crossing  at  Rivers  Bridge. 

We  had  a  mounted  infantry  company,  the  Ninth 
Illinois  Regiment,  led  at  that  time  by  Lieutenant  Col¬ 
onel  Kirby.  I  have  a  note  of  Kirby’s  action  on  Feb¬ 
ruary  2d: 

When  Kirby  came  within  long  range  of  the  Confederate 
muskets  he  deployed  his  command  as  skirmishers,  and  had 
some  infantry  supports  behind  him.  He  charged  the  Confed¬ 
erate  barricade,  his  men  firing  their  seven-shooters  on  the 
charge.  The  Confederates  stood  still  until  Kirby  was  upon 
them. 

In  this  charge  Kirby  had  a  magnificent  horse  shot 

106 


March  Through  the  Carolinas 

under  him  and  was  himself  quite  severely  wounded. 
He  gained  the  works,  however,  and  skirmished  on, 
driving  the  Confederate  cavalry  before  him  across 
the  Salkehatchie.  General  Mower,  with  his  division, 
was  leading  the  command  on  this  day  on  the  Rivers 
Bridge  road.  In  this  section  there  was  hardly  any  re¬ 
sistance;  the  division  struck  what  may  be  called  the 
last  section  of  the  road.  Then  there  was  a  straight 
causeway,  several  small  bridges,  and  a  longer  one  be¬ 
hind  which  quite  a  bluff  commanded  the  situation. 
On  it  the  Confederates  had  placed  some  heavy  guns 
which  swept  the  whole  section,  and  particularly  the 
bridge  road.  As  soon  as  the  firing  began  our  men 
sprang  off  the  road  into  the  swamps.  Ten  or  a  dozen 
were  hit,  but  it  was  at  this  time  that  the  colonel  of 
the  Forty- third  Ohio,  Wager  Swayne,  was  struck  just 
below  the  knee  with  the  fragment  of  a  shell.  His  leg 
was  badly  broken,  and  when  the  stretcher  bearers 
bore  him  past  me  I  saw  that  he  was  in  pain,  and  so 
in  sympathy  for  him  I  caught  a  large  pine  cone  from 
the  ground,  and  fixing  his  leg  in  a  straighter  position, 
I  supported  it  with  the  cone.  I  remember  that  he 
looked  up  into  my  face  with  a  pleasant,  grateful  smile, 
and  used  a  Christian  expression  that  I  recall  to  this 
day :  “  The  Lord  sustains  me !  ”  General  Swayne’s 
record  as  a  soldier,  as  a  lawyer,  as  a  citizen  is  too  well 
known  to  our  countrymen  to  need  anything  but  a  ref¬ 
erence.  He  was  a  grand,  manly  man. 

Under  my  personal  supervision  our  men  as  skir¬ 
mishers  worked  out  on  the  right  and  left  till  they  found 
a  safe  crossing.  Mower  then  opened  two  parallel 
roads,  laying  foot  bridges  a  mile  and  a  half  in  extent, 
for  the  water  was  deep  on  the  shores  of  the  Salkehat¬ 
chie.  He  bridged  sixteen  swift  streams,  and  then 

107 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

finally  rushed  over  two  brigades  in  boats  across  the 
main  river,  and  came  upon  the  enemy’s  right  flank. 
The  place  was  abandoned  as  soon  as  Mower  appeared. 

Another  division  (Giles  A.  Smith’s),  unexpectedly 
to  me,  managed  to  work  over  two  miles  below  me  and 
so  cleared  Broxton’s  Bridge.  I  wrote  of  this  strong 
work  at  Rivers  Bridge  on  the  evening  of  February 
3d  to  Sherman: 

It  was  the  strongest  position  I  ever  saw  in  my  life,  and  I 
think  was  defended  by  2,000  men;  some  regimental  flags  ac¬ 
companying  troops  in  motion  below  Giles  Smith,  moving  down 
the  river,  were  seen  by  our  men  just  before  dark. 

It  was  wonderful  that  we  secured  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Salke- 
hatchie  so  quickly  and  with  so  little  loss;  yet  everybody  felt 
very  deep  sympathy  for  those  who  were  wounded,  especially  for 
Colonel  Wager  Swayne,  and,  also,  sorrow  so  often  repeated  for  the 
few  who  had  fallen  to  rise  no  more.  General  Mower’s  loss  was 
about  twelve  killed  and  seventy  wounded. 

In  reading  the  life  of  Stonewall  Jackson,  so  ably 
and  truly  written  by  his  widow,  I  notice  that  while 
he  was  always  extremely  anxious  to  keep  the  Sabbath, 
he  seldom  allowed  his  devotion  to  interfere  with  mili¬ 
tary  movements.  However  distasteful  this  might  be, 
our  Christian  men  also  regarded  the  Sunday  march, 
and  often  the  Sunday  attack,  as  a  necessity. 

On  Sunday,  February  5th,  my  columns  completed 
their  crossings  of  this  most  difficult  Salkeliatchie,  and 
the  next  day,  the  6tli,  pushed  on  to  the  Little  Salke- 
liatchie. 

Logan,  with  the  Fifteenth  Corps,  had  the  usual  re¬ 
sistance,  and  a  Confederate  bridge  was  burning  at 
his  crossing ;  he  secured  a  place,  a  mere  hamlet,  called 
Duncanville.  He  dislodged  his  foes  in  quick  time 

108 


March  Through  the  Carolinas 

and  made  another  rough  bridge  a  hundred  feet  long 
and  crossed  over. 

Blair,  with  the  Seventeenth  Corps,  had  a  like  trial 
at  Cowpen  Ford,  the  famous  Revolutionary  historical 
point,  and  with  260  feet  of  bridging  came  up  abreast. 
The  two  corps  struggled  on,  bothered  more  by  the 
swamps  than  by  the  brave  detachments  of  clustering 
Confederates  that  were  always  in  their  advancing 
way. 

On  February  7th  we  were  out  of  the  woods  on  the 
Augusta  &  Charleston  Railroad,  near  the  village  of 
Midway,  and  destroying  the  road  four  miles  up  and 
down.  The  double  -  forked  Edisto  River  was  still 
ahead.  We  searched  out  the  crossing  as  soon  as  we 
could  drive  the  Confederates  back  enough  to  do  so. 
Holman’s,  Cannon’s,  Binnaker’s,  Walker’s,  Skillings’s, 
and  the  railway  bridges  were  examined.  Sherman, 
then  with  Logan  at  Lowry’s  Station  (Atlanta  & 
Charleston  Railroad),  gave  us  a  special  field  order, 
directing  the  taking  of  Orangeburg. 

The  swampy  approaches  to  the  south  fork  of  the 
Edisto,  the  cypress,  and  other  trees  thickly  studding 
a  wide  stretch,  and  the  high  water  extending  back 
hundreds  of  yards  on  our  side  of  the  river,  might 
have  disheartened  any  men  not  made  up  like  our  ex¬ 
perienced  and  resolute  veterans.  How  we  skirmished 
up  Blair’s  men  under  Mower  and  Force  at  Binnaker’s 
Bridge,  and  Logan’s  under  Hazen,  and  John  E.  Smith 
at  Holman’s  and  Skillings’s  crossings ;  how  they  put 
in  boats,  cut  paths,  and  worked  incessantly,  often  with 
cartridge  boxes  and  haversacks  suspended  to  their 
necks,  only  those  who  were  there  could  tell! 

Mower  effected  a  crossing  of  the  (South)  Edisto 
the  evening  of  the  9tli,  at  about  six  o’clock.  He  laid 

109 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

the  pontoon  to  an  island,  and  as  soon  as  he  had  got 
one  brigade  over  he  pushed  on  across  the  island  and 
waded  the  swamp,  making  a  lodgment  on  what  ap¬ 
peared  to  be  the  mainland.  He  met,  however,  a  hos¬ 
tile  skirmish  line  about  8  p.m.  ;  and,  as  it  was  night,  con¬ 
cluded  to  intrench  and  wait  for  daylight.  The  ground 
was  marshy  and  the  water  in  the  main  swamp  be¬ 
tween  two  and  three  feet  deep.  The  men  here  also 
swung  their  cartridge  boxes  around  their  necks.  I 
am  inclined  to  think  the  crossing  (above)  at  Holmes’s 
(or  Holman’s)  bridge  was  no  worse  than  this.  Hazen 
sent  some  men  over  a  mile  and  a  half  above  the  bridge 
and  cut  his  way  nearly  through  the  swamp.  A  little 
later:  Mower  drove  the  enemy  off  from  the  Orange¬ 
burg  front,  sent  back  a  regiment  along  the  main  road, 
and  took  a  strong  position  a  mile  and  a  half  from  the 
river.  The  bridge  on  the  main  road  was  then  laid. 

Next  came  the  north  fork  of  the  Edisto.  General 
Force  was  ahead.  The  principal  Orangeburg  bridge 
having  been  burned,  Major  Osborn  (my  chief  of  ar¬ 
tillery)  and  myself  worked  our  way  across  Force’s 
footbridge,  and  went  into  Orangeburg  on  foot  the 
morning  of  February  12,  1865.  The  village  was  at 
least  half  a  mile  from  the  North  Edisto  River.  The 
troops  were  posted  across  all  the  roads  over  which 
the  Confederates  had  retired,  and  then  set  to  work 
to  destroy  the  railroad.  Another  line,  the  Columbia 
&  Charleston  Railroad,  ran  through  the  town.  There 
were  perhaps  800  population  at  that  time.  Cotton 
brokers  had  made  it  a  center  of  some  importance. 
Our  skirmishers  alleged  that  they  found  the  town  on 
fire  when  they  came  in  sight,  and  before  we  could  ar¬ 
rest  the  flames  a  third  of  the  houses  were  consumed. 

From  testimony  that  came  to  us  the  fire  at  Orange- 

110 


March  Through  the  Carolinas 

burg  originated  at  home.  The  Confederate  com¬ 
mander  ordered  that  a  large  collection  of  cotton  bales 
which  belonged  to  a  Jewish  merchant  be  burned.  It 
was  done  just  as  Stevenson,  commanding  a  Con¬ 
federate  division,  was  leaving  the  village.  The  mer¬ 
chant  then,  in  his  anger,  fired  his  own  store  within, 
locked  the  doors,  and  accompanied  the  Confederate 
troops.  The  cotton  and  that  store  were  on  fire,  burn¬ 
ing  briskly,  producing  wonderfully  picturesque  ef¬ 
fects  when  we  came  in.  Our  men,  under  orders,  also 
burned  the  cotton  that  remained — 200  bales. 

Major  Osborn’s  notes  say:  “  Our  soldiers  assisted 
the  inhabitants  to  save  their  property.”  He  added 
another  pleasant  remark :  “  All  the  people  say  that 
our  officers  and  men  have  treated  them  with  real  kind¬ 
ness  and  consideration.”  "We  captured  here  not  less 
than  100  prisoners,  and  we  lost  less  than  10  men. 

The  troops  went  to  work  as  if  they  enjoyed  the 
exercise,  burning  ties  and  twisting  iron  rails  in  dif¬ 
ferent  directions  from  Orangeburg.  Blair  had  a  few 
mounted  men  who  penetrated  eastward  as  far  as  the 
State  road,  and  either  destroyed  or  caused  their  Con¬ 
federate  coadjutors  to  destroy  trestlework  in  abun¬ 
dance,  and  regular  bridges,  railroad  included,  as  far 
as  the  Santee  River. 

On  my  arrival  in  Orangeburg,  while  others  were 
in  some  confusion,  as  our  troops  were  being  put  out  to 
follow  up  the  retreating  Confederates,  and  some  men 
being  sent  to  stop  the  fires,  a  lady,  much  excited  and 
somewhat  oversolicitous,  came  to  me  and  demanded  a 
guard.  I  tried  to  tell  her  to  wait  a  while  till  we  were 
in  shape  to  furnish  guards;  but  she  could  not  delay. 
I  could  not  make  her  see  matters  as  I  did  in  the  line 
of  relative  importance.  My  firm  rejection  of  her  suit 

111 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

for  that  time  she  regarded  as  an  insult,  and  left  me 
deeply  vexed. 

While  I  was  still  there  during  February  12th  to¬ 
ward  night  General  Sherman  joined  me. 

The  general  and  I  with  several  officers  were  con¬ 
sulting  together  in  one  of  the  houses  of  Orangeburg, 
when  that  lady  was  ushered  in.  She  had  met  Sherman 
before  at  Fort  Moultrie  in  better  days.  She  recalled 
mutual  acquaintances  and  friends.  The  general  was 
seemingly  greatly  pleased  that  she  came,  and  was 
very  kind.  She  then,  to  his  amusement,  entered  a 
formal  complaint  against  one  of  his  officers,  who,  she 
said,  had  treated  her  with  marked  discourtesy  and 
roughness.  General  Sherman  was  very  sorry.  He 
said  he  would  try  to  make  amends  and  would  have  the 
officer  punished.  “  Who  could  it  be?  ”  he  asked.  “  It 
was  General  Howard,”  she  said,  with  emphasis  and 
some  severity.  The  lady  did  not  dream  that  I  was 
present.  “  How  is  this,  Howard?”  Sherman  asked 
turning  to  me.  The  lady  was  startled  to  again  meet 
me  in  that  way.  I  explained  as  well  as  I  could. 
Doubtless  I  had  been  impatient.  When  skirmishing 
is  going  on  and  fires  are  burning,  the  responsible 
head  may  have,  on  some  occasions,  too  many  irons  in 
the  fire.  Sherman  assured  her  that  Howard  was 
usually  a  kind  man  and  that  she  would  find  that  he 
would  jmotect  her.  In  the  meantime  I  had  already 
sent  her  the  desired  guard. 

The  left  wing  under  Slocum  had  its  own  opera¬ 
tions.  I  never  received,  as  Sherman  did  daily,  any 
but  the  most  meager  news  concerning  his  movements ; 
yet  often  his  doings  and  happenings  were  the  most 
entertaining.  So  I  am  made  to  believe  by  the  subse¬ 
quent  stories  and  reports  of  participators. 

112 


March  Through  the  Carolinas 

General  George  W.  Ballocli,  who  had  for  a  long 
time  previous  to  this  campaign  been  my  chief  com¬ 
missary,  was  now  occupying  the  same  official  position 
in  the  Twentieth  Corps.  He  accompanied  the  corps 
at  the  time  it  was  crossing  the  Savannah  over  into  the 
swampy  country  of  South  Carolina.  Lately  he  has 
sent  me  some  of  his  recollections. 

The  Twentieth  Corps  (Balloch’s  own)  had  a  rough 
time  just  before  starting  from  Savannah  until  it 
struck  dry  ground  at  Robertsville.  “  Had  we  been 
web-footed,”  he  said,  “  it  would  have  added  to  our 
comfort.” 

Balloch  adds :  “  A  correspondent  of  the  New 
York  Herald  published  a  letter  in  his  paper  and  de¬ 
scribed  the  situation,  which  worried  my  wife  not  a 
little,  for  she  knew  that  I  had  been  quite  ill  before  I 
left  Savannah;  in  fact,  the  surgeon  had  ordered  me 
to  go  home,  but,  stubborn  as  usual,  I  would  not.  The 
letter  was  in  substance  to  this  effect,  that  one  night 
when  hunting  for  the  Headquarters  of  the  Twentieth 
Corps,  the  correspondent  had  heard  voices  from  the 
regions  above  calling  out: 

“  ‘Hello,  old  fellow,  is  that  you?  You  had  better 
come  up  and  secure  a  roosting  place.’ 

“  In  looking  up  he  discovered  General  A.  S.  Wil¬ 
liams,  the  corps  commander,  and  staff  safely  ensconced 
in  the  forks  of  the  trees.  They  were  enveloped  in 
sheets  and  blankets  that  had  been  foraged  from  the 
country  while  marching  through  Georgia. 

“  General  Williams  was  smoking  and  looking  as 
quiet  and  serene  as  if  he  had  been  in  his  tent  on  dry 
ground.  This  correspondent’s  picture  gives  one  who 
was  there  a  clear  reminder  of  what  we  did  go  through. 

“  At  Zion’s  Church,  near  Columbia,  we  had  to 

113 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

cross  a  small  stream,  and  I  was  directed  not  to  nse 
tlie  bridge  for  my  foot  trains  until  Kilpatrick’s  cavalry 
had  passed.  But  I  took  my  instructions  with  some 
latitude.  As  soon  as  our  infantry  was  over,  finding 
a  space,  I  began  sending  over  my  trains,  and  so  keep¬ 
ing  the  road  full.  In  the  course  of  an  hour  Kilpatrick 
and  his  cavalry  came  up,  and  he  was  exceedingly 
wratliy  when  he  found  me  using  the  bridge. 

“  Kemembering  that  a  soft  word  turneth  away 
wrath,  I  told  him  very  pleasantly  that  I  knew  he  had 
the  right  of  way,  and  that  I  would  speedily  give  it  up 
to  him;  that  I  only  used  the  bridge  in  order  not  to 
have  it  stand  vacant.  Then,  doubtless  with  some 
show  of  humor,  I  said : 

“  4  By  the  way,  general,  I  heard  a  good  joke  about 
you  yesterday.’ 

“  4  What  was  it?  ’  Kilpatrick  asked. 

“  ‘  General  Sherman  said  that  you  were  changing 
the  names  of  places  about  here,  so  that  soon  a  new 
geography  would  have  to  be  made.  He  said  that  he 
sent  you  up  to  Barnwell  the  other  day,  and  that  you 
had  changed  the  name  of  the  place  to  Burnwell.’ 

“  Kilpatrick’s  anger  vanished  in  an  instant. 
Bursting  into  laughter,  he  said: 

“  4  Go  on  with  your  train.  We  might  as  well  take 
our  noon  rest  here  as  anywhere.’ 

“  My  idea  was  a  slight  variation  from  what  I  un¬ 
derstood  Sherman  to  say  to  Kilpatrick  a  few  days  be¬ 
fore.  Just  as  he  was  starting  on  his  trip  he  asked 
him : 

“  ‘  General  Sherman,  how  shall  I  let  you  know 
where  I  am?  ’ 

“  ‘  Oh,  just  burn  a  bridge  or  something  and  make 
a  smoke,  as  the  Indians  do  on  the  plains.’ 

114 


March  Through  the  Carolinas 

“  You  know  that  our  old  friend  Slocum  at  times 
could  be  very  much  out  of  sorts.  Then  he  was  very 
likely  to  make  everybody  else  uncomfortable,  all  at  the 
same  time.  One  cold,  dreary,  drizzling  morning,  for 
example,  up  in  the  interior  of  South  Carolina,  he  had 
one  of  these  fits  on  him.  As  we  were  riding  along 
we  struck  my  herd  of  cattle,  which  were  just  outside 
the  column.  It  was  a  motley  herd,  I  can  assure  you, 
and  had  everything  in  it  that  could  walk.  It  had 
been  gathered  while  on  the  march,  and  was  made  up 
from  a  patriarchal  bull,  with  a  head  as  shaggy  as  a 
buffalo’s,  to  a  sucking  calf.  At  the  head  of  the  line 
was  an  enormous  ox,  one  of  our  own  stock,  and  he 
was  led  by  a  soldier  who  had  strapped  all  his  belong¬ 
ings  on  the  ox’s  back.  The  soldier  was  patiently 
trudging  along,  singing  every  few  minutes : 

“  ‘  Yo-ho-ee !  Yo-ho-ee !  ’ 

“  The  soldier  himself  was  a  picture  not  soon  to  be 
forgotten.  A  leg  of  his  pants  was  gone,  and  part  of 
his  hat  rim,  and  he  was  as  grimy  as  a  coal  heaver, 
caused  by  traveling  through  the  burnt  woods.  When 
not  calling  to  his  cattle  with  his  4  Yo-ho-ee  ’  he  was 
singing  in  a  stentorian  voice :  ‘  I’ll  be  gay  and  happy 
still.’ 

“  The  sight  of  that  soldier,  when  Slocum’s  atten¬ 
tion  was  called  to  him  and  his  surroundings,  was  too 
much  for  the  general.  As  soon  as  he  looked  at  him 
he  exclaimed: 

“  6  Look  at  that  fellow !  Hear  him !  I  think  if  he 
can  be  happy  and  gay,  surely  I  ought  to  be.’  Then 
Slocum’s  good  humor  returned.” 

From  Robertsville,  S.  C.,  Slocum’s  march  aimed  a 
little  to  the  north  of  Columbia,  and  for  the  time  Kil¬ 
patrick’s  cavalry  was  beyond  his  wing  northward. 

115 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

Generally  Slocum,  who  sooner  struck  the  upland,  had 
easier  marching  than  my  wing,  and  I  had  more  miles 
to  march,  as  I  moved  upon  the  two  sides  of  the  tri¬ 
angle  while  he  was  following  the  diagonal. 

As  my  wing  pushed  northward  after  crossing  the 
north  fork  of  the  Edisto,  ever  widening  the  railroad 
spaces  and  spoiling  the  railway  lines,  the  first  consid¬ 
erable  obstacles  were  a  deep  stream  and  a  swamp ;  the 
stream,  called  the  Congaree  Creek,  being  a  western 
tributary  to  the  Congaree  Eiver,  upon  whose  left  bank 
the  beautiful  capital  of  South  Carolina  is  situated. 


116 


CHAPTER  XLIII 


MARCH  THROUGH  THE  CAROLINAS ;  THE  TAKING  OF 

COLUMBIA 

TV/T OST  of  the  swamp  and  the  Congaree  Creek  were 
lying  perpendicular  to  our  pathway.  The 
swamp  for  the  most  part  had  been  cleared,  drained, 
and  placed  under  cultivation,  but  the  rain  had  softened 
the  surface  so  that  on  all  our  new  roads  our  men  sank 
into  the  mud  at  every  step.  It  was  worse  for  the 
horses  than  for  the  men,  so  that  our  cavalry  was  soon 
stalled.  There  was  much  of  the  swamp  growth  of 
small  trees.  The  old  existing  roadway  was  a  cause¬ 
way  10  or  12  feet  above  the  bottom  land,  having  deep 
ditches  on  each  side.  An  unaccountable  accident  must 
have  overtaken  some  quartermaster  of  ours,  for  a  long 
stretch  of  the  side  ditching  was  filled  with  overturned 
vehicles,  such  as  army  wagons  and  ambulances. 

This  overturning  unfortunately  occurred  within 
direct  range  of  the  enemy’s  musketry  fire.  The  fog  at 
the  time  was  so  thick  that  it  was  difficult  to  get  the 
teams  involved  out  of  the  predicament.  Fortunately 
for  us,  probably  on  account  of  the  fog,  as  soon  as  we 
deployed  our  lines  on  both  sides  of  the  road  and  com¬ 
menced  firing,  the  enemy  replied  to  us,  without  being 
particular  as  to  direction.  Owing  to  this  bad  aiming, 
coupled  with  the  fog,  we  managed  to  save  our  trains. 

Our  men  in  their  strong  skirmish  line  became  en¬ 
thusiastic.  They  pressed  the  Confederates  back, 

117 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

mostly  cavalry  and  artillery,  from  point  to  point,  and 
worked  away  till  they  found  their  left  flank.  Just 
before  that  point  the  old  game  was  repeated.  A  com¬ 
pany  of  skirmishers  50  or  60  strong  waded  the  ap¬ 
proaches  and  the  creek,  the  water  being  up  to  their 
waists.  They  gained  sure  footing  on  the  other  bank 
before  the  enemy  discovered  them,  and  fired  a  volley 
into  the  flank  and  rear  of  the  Confederate  line.  This 
move  created  a  panic  there  and  a  stampede.  We  suc¬ 
ceeded  beyond  our  expectations.  The  men,  pressing 
down  the  causeway,  quickly  drove  away  the  Confeder¬ 
ate  defenders  who  lingered  after  the  departure  of 
their  comrades,  and  so  we  saved  the  bridge  entire.  At 
least  two  of  our  divisions  hurried  over  and  marched 
rapidly  a  mile  and  a  half  when  they  came  upon  an¬ 
other  intrenched,  well-defended  line  of  battle.  We 
had  seen  but  little  infantry  during  this  rapid  advance, 
but  there  was  a  fine  display  in  one  open  space  of 
Hampton’s  cavalry. 

This  cavalry  made  one  desperate  charge  against 
our  infantry  line,  but  was  quickly  repulsed.  It  is  said 
that  for  his  handsome  and  persistent  charge  Wade 
Hampton  was  immediately  made  lieutenant  general. 
Such  was  the  story  of  a  telegraph  operator  whom  we 
met. 

It  was  really  time  to  encamp,  for  one  of  our  bri¬ 
gades,  which  was  already  squarely  up  with  the  fight¬ 
ing  troops,  had  marched  27  miles  that  day,  the  15th  of 
February.  That  night  I  encamped  opposite  Colum¬ 
bia;  before  retiring  I  issued  orders  that  we  continue 
the  same  onward  movement  the  next  day. 

We  had  an  uncomfortable  night,  for  the  Confed¬ 
erates  fired  into  our  camp  from  the  other  side  of  the 
Great  Congaree.  They  succeeded  in  killing  one  officer 

118 


The  Taking  of  Columbia 

and  several  men,  and  wounded  many  more.  It  was  our 
camp  fires  which  exposed  us.  It  was  not  long,  how¬ 
ever,  before  our  energetic  workers  covered  our  ex¬ 
posed  bivouac  with  traverses,  i.  e.,  high  banks  of  earth 
well  located.  In  the  night  the  Confederate  intrenched 
line  straight  before  us  was  abandoned. 

We  were  not  long  in  crossing  the  open  space  be¬ 
tween  us  and  the  Congaree  Bridge  for  the  Confederate 
batteries  and  sharpshooters  on  the  Columbia  side 
made  it  pretty  hot  for  more  than  a  mile  of  exposure 
along  our  bank  of  the  river. 

DeGress’s  battery  was  brought  into  position  near 
the  burning  bridge  and  soon  cleared  the  streets  of  Co¬ 
lumbia,  opposite  from  the  enemy’s  cavalry.  But  as 
their  sharpshooters  continued  their  annoying  business, 
Logan  caused  further  shelling  of  that  part  of  the  city 
which  was  immediately  exposed  to  his  batteries’  fire. 

Just  above  Columbia  there  are  two  rivers,  the  Sa¬ 
luda  and  the  Broad,  which  conjoin  to  form  the  Con¬ 
garee.  I  proceeded  at  once  to  what  was  called  the 
Saluda  factory.  Of  course,  the  fine  bridge  there,  hav¬ 
ing  been  previously  covered  with  kindling  and  pitch 
wood,  was  quickly  consumed.  It  did  not  take  long  for 
us  to  lay  a  new  bridge.  A  cavalry  regiment  led  the 
crossing,  and  our  infantry  was  soon  in  place  between 
the  two  rivers.  We  made  a  run  for  the  next  bridge 
over  the  Broad,  following  the  Confederates  in  their 
rapid  retreat;  but  we  could  not  save  the  structure, 
for  barrels  of  resin  and  turpentine  had  been  emptied 
upon  it,  and  the  enemy’s  artillery  from  the  other  bank 
checked  our  advance.  It  did  not  take  over  half  an 
hour  for  their  furious  flames  to  consume  it. 

We  now  had  Slocum  near  by.  I  exchanged  greet¬ 
ings  with  him  through  a  staff  officer.  As  a  matter  of 

119 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

fact,  Slocum  had  not  been  far  back  from  Columbia 
for  three  or  four  days,  and  had  delayed  his  approach 
for  our  coming.  Of  course,  the  next  thing  we  did  was 
to  work  across  the  Broad.  We  sent  over  one  bri¬ 
gade — Colonel  Stone’s — in  boats  during  the  night, 
drove  away  the  Confederate  defenders  from  the  other 
bank,  made  a  good  bridgehead,  and  commenced  laying 
the  bridge  itself  very  early  in  the  morning  of 
February  17,  1865.  We  appeared  to  have  infantry 
against  us,  said  to  be  S.  D.  Lee’s  corps  and  Hampton’s 
legion. 

As  soon  as  all  the  enemies  in  the  usual  way  had 
been  rooted  out,  captured  or  driven  back,  Stone’s  bri¬ 
gade  began  to  march  southward  toward  Columbia. 
The  mayor  of  the  city  came  out  with  several  attend¬ 
ants  to  meet  Stone,  and  he,  at  least  nominally,  turned 
over  the  keys  of  Columbia  to  him.  At  about  eleven 
o’clock  in  the  morning,  Sherman  and  I,  with  our  re¬ 
spective  staff  officers  and  a  small  escort,  succeeded  in 
crossing  the  new  bridge  over  the  Broad  and  proceeded 
to  the  capital  of  South  Carolina. 

Side  by  side  Sherman  and  I  entered  the  city  and 
traversed  the  main  streets.  There  was  not  much  dem¬ 
onstration  from  the  white  people,  but  the  negroes  gave 
their  usual  exhibitions  of  delight,  sometimes  dancing 
upon  the  sidewalks,  sometimes  shouting  and  singing. 
I  noticed  that  our  own  troops  were  unusually  demon¬ 
strative  in  cheering  for  Sherman,  and  learned  that 
traders  and  negroes  had  carried  out  buckets  of  whisky 
to  them  wishing  to  please  and  pacify  the  men.  The 
soldiers  had  worked  all  night  and  marched  to  Colum¬ 
bia  without  a  breakfast.  Numbers  of  Stone’s  brigade 
were  thus  excited  and  soon  intoxicated. 

Somebody  had  caused  to  be  taken  nearly  all  the 

120 


The  Taking  of  Columbia 

cotton  which  was  stored  in  the  city  and  arranged  it 
in  long  rows  in  the  main  streets,  and  then  set  it  on  lire. 
Certainly  this  was  done  before  any  of  our  men  reached 
the  city.  The  Confederate  officers  were  themselves 
under  orders  to  destroy  the  cotton  to  keep  it  from  fall¬ 
ing  into  our  hands.  They  destroyed  also  provisions 
and  other  supplies,  and  it  is  undoubtedly  the  case  that 
the  Confederates  set  fire  to  the  cotton  and  a  few  of 
the  buildings,  one  of  which  was  a  railway  depot.  The 
wind  was  blowing  a  hurricane  all  the  morning  so  that 
the  fire  quickly  spread;  as  soon  as  one  or  two  houses 
had  caught  and  began  to  burn,  the  flames  extended 
to  the  others. 

I  had  gone  on  through  the  city  and  taken  up  my 
quarters  at  the  College;  but,  noticing  the  extraordi¬ 
nary  conduct  of  Stone’s  brigade,  I  quickly  sent  for  an¬ 
other  brigade  to  replace  this,  and  then  a  little  later  for 
another.  Finally,  I  had  the  whole  of  one  division  and 
a  part  of  another  guarding  the  city,  and  endeavoring 
to  protect  the  inhabitants  and  save  all  that  was  pos¬ 
sible  from  the  flames.  There  were  many  imprisoned 
people — negroes,  Union  prisoners  of  war,  and  State 
convicts — who  were  let  loose  by  our  men.  There  were 
also  criminal  classes  and  drunken  soldiers.  All  these 
elements,  doubtless,  were  soon  engaged  in  making  bad 
matters  worse,  against  my  wishes  and  the  orders  of 
the  other  commanders.  The  ensuing  great  damage 
was  originally  owing  to  the  fires  set  by  the  Confeder¬ 
ate  authorities. 

I  spoke  of  the  depot  being  consumed.  Near  that 
was  a  magazine.  The  day  before  we  entered  some 
Confederates  were  said  to  be  plundering  there.  They 
dropped  a  spark,  perhaps  from  a  cigar,  where  there 
was  some  powder  upon  the  floor.  The  explosion  was 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

fearful,  and  killed  outright  at  least  twenty  Confeder¬ 
ates  and  many  more  women  and  children.  This  ex¬ 
plosion,  which  was  an  accident,  may  have  also  been  the 
cause  of  the  burning  of  the  railroad  station. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  exaggerate  the  horrors  of 
that  long  night  between  the  17th  and  18th  of  Feb¬ 
ruary,  1865.  Sherman,  Logan,  and  myself,  with  all 
the  officers  under  our  command,  worked  faithfully  to 
care  for  the  people  who  were  exposed,  and  we  did  save 
many  houses  in  different  parts  of  the  city.  The 
flames  would  lick  up  a  house  seemingly  in  an  instant 
and  shoot  from  house  to  house  with  incredible  rapidity. 

The  very  heavens  at  times  appeared  on  fire.  A 
wide  street  was  no  barrier.  Clusters  of  inhabitants 
would  carry  out  all  their  valuables  and  sit  upon  them, 
and  they  were  often  guarded  by  faithful  men.  A 
large  number  of  our  men,  who  perhaps  drank  whisky 
for  the  first  time  when  it  was  brought  to  them  that 
day  in  buckets,  became  blindly  drunk,  and  hundreds 
perished  in  the  flames  in  spite  of  all  the  efforts  of  their 
comrades  to  save  them. 

It  was  about  three  o’clock  the  morning  of  the  18th 
when  the  wind  changed  to  the  opposite  quarter,  and 
after  that,  with  little  effort,  we  were  able  to  arrest 
the  progress  of  the  fire,  so  that  more  than  one  third 
of  the  beautiful  city  of  Columbia  was  suffered  to  re¬ 
main  untouched. 

During  the  night  I  met  Logan  and  Woods  and 
other  general  officers,  and  they  were  taking  every  pos¬ 
sible  measure  to  stop  the  fire  and  prevent  disorder. 
Nevertheless,  some  escaped  prisoners,  convicts  from 
the  penitentiary  just  broken  open,  army  followers,  and 
drunken  soldiers  ran  through  house  after  house  and 
were  doubtless  guilty  of  all  manner  of  villainies,  and 

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The  Taking  of  Columbia 

it  was  these  men  that,  I  presume,  set  new  fires  farther 
to  the  windward  in  the  northern  part  of  the  city.  Old 
men,  women,  and  children,  with  everything  that  they 
could  get  out,  were  huddled  together  in  the  streets. 
At  some  places  we  found  officers  and  kind-hearted  sol¬ 
diers  protecting  families  from  the  insults  and  rough¬ 
ness  of  the  careless. 

One  instance  in  particular  which  I  recall  was  the 
protection  given  to  the  house  and  family  of  the  Eev. 
Dr.  A.  Toomer  Porter,  who  had  been  a  Confederate 
chaplain.  Lieutenant  McQueen,  of  Captain  William 
Duncan’s  company,  belonging  to  my  escort,  remained 
with  this  family  or  near  it  throughout  the  conflagra¬ 
tion.  He  had  the  fires  quenched  as  they  came  near,  or 
protected  wood  that  was  heated  against  the  flames  by 
one  contrivance  or  another.  He  was  so  kind  and  con¬ 
siderate  that  he  won  the  affection  of  Dr.  Porter  and 
all  belonging  to  his  household. 

Not  long  after  we  left  Columbia,  Captain  Duncan, 
with  his  company,  was  on  a  scout  toward  the  lower 
portion  of  South  Carolina.  He  ran  into  some  troops 
of  Confederate  cavalry  in  the  darkness  of  the  night. 
He  fought  them  bravely  and  succeeded  in  saving  his 
command,  but  left  the  generous  and  brave  lieutenant 
so  desperately  wounded  on  the  field  that  he  could  not 
be  removed  without  endangering  his  life.  He  was  fi¬ 
nally  placed  in  a  Carolina  household,  where  he  was 
cared  for,  but  where,  owing  to  the  excitement  then 
existing  in  the  country,  his  life  was  believed  to  be  in 
peril.  Dr.  Porter  chanced  to  hear  of  the  wounded  offi¬ 
cer,  and  also  of  his  weak  condition  and  danger.  The 
doctor  immediately  made  his  way  to  the  house  where 
he  was  confined  by  his  wounds,  stayed  with  him,  and 
nursed  him  until  he  was  able  to  move.  Then  he  pro- 

123 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

cured  as  easy  a  carriage  as  lie  could  get  and  brought 
him  through  the  intervening  Confederate  and  Union 
lines,  a  distance  of  several  hundred  miles,  to  me  at 
Ealeigh,  N.  C.  This  was  just  about  the  time  of  John¬ 
ston’s  surrender,  and  after  we  had  heard  of  the  sur¬ 
render  of  Robert  E.  Lee’s  forces  in  Virginia.  This 
act  of  Dr.  Porter  won  my  heart. 

After  many  years  of  suffering  from  his  wound  and 
a  shortened  leg,  better  medical  attendance  and  extraor¬ 
dinary  skill  on  the  part  of  a  surgeon  succeeded  in 
restoring  McQueen  to  complete  health  and  robust  con¬ 
dition.  I  have  since  visited  Dr.  Porter  in  Charleston, 
S.  C.,  and  can  testify  to  the  noble  work  of  his  life  in 
educating  young  men,  especially  the  sons  of  those  who 
have  been  unable  otherwise  to  provide  the  means  for 
such  educational  advantages.  He  has  also  helped  me 
in  many  ways  in  my  efforts  to  extend  the  influence 
of  educational  institutions  to  all  our  people. 

Just  before  we  left  Columbia  to  resume  our  onward 
march,  the  mayor  of  the  city  came  to  Sherman  with 
much  show  of  distress  and  asked  him  what  he  was 
to  do  to  feed  the  large  population  that  had  been  left 
homeless  and  destitute  by  this  great  fire.  Sherman 
had  a  crisp  manner  at  times  when  matters  bothered 
him.  He  said  to  the  mayor: 

“  Go  to  Howard.”  And  I  was  told  that  he  also 
remarked  in  pleasantry,  “  Howard  runs  the  religion 
of  this  army.”  And  then  he  said  again :  “  Go  to  him ; 
he  commands  the  troops  that  hold  the  city.  He  will 
treat  you  better  than  one  of  your  own  generals.” 

I  did  not  hear  these  remarks,  but  soon  after  his 
interview  with  Sherman  the  mayor  came  to  me  and 
put  before  me  the  same  supply  problem  for  solution. 
I  caused  a  herd  of  cattle,  which  my  commissary  had 

124 


The  Taking  of  Columbia 

gathered,  to  be  divided  and  gave  one  half  of  the  cattle 
to  the  mayor,  and  also  sent  half  of  our  rations  to  the 
new  State  House,  to  he  stored  there  for  the  use  of  the 
impoverished  people.  The  mayor  was  afraid  that 
there  would  be  no  adequate  provision  for  the  future 
after  the  ration  supply  had  been  exhausted.  He  said 
again : 

“  What  can  I  do  ?  ”  I  told  him  that  if  I  were  he  I 
would  organize  foraging  parties  from  the  inhabitants 
of  the  city,  and  send  them  out  into  portions  of  the 
country  which  our  foragers  had  not  reached  and  have 
them  make  forced  loans.  He  must  give  careful  cer¬ 
tificates,  promising  their  redemption  after  the  advent 
of  peace  and  prosperity.  Years  afterwards  I  met  the 
same  gentleman  who  had  been  mayor  at  the  time  of 
our  visit  in  1865.  He  told  me  that  he  had  followed 
the  advice  which  I  had  given  him  in  detail,  and 
that  the  plan  had  worked  so  well  that  there  was  no 
want. 

We  actually  commenced  and  completed  the  evacu¬ 
ation  of  the  city  the  morning  of  the  20tli. 

The  destruction  of  certain  Confederate  public 
property — that  is,  property  made  use  of  for  further¬ 
ing  the  interests  of  the  war — was  committed  to  me  in 
Sherman’s  specific  instructions. 

The  undertaking  was  accomplished  by  my  inspec¬ 
tor  general,  Lieutenant  Colonel  William  E.  Strong, 
whose  name,  a  synonym  for  loyalty  and  devotion  not 
only  to  the  cause  for  which  we  fought,  but  to  his  com¬ 
mander,  is  held  in  special  love  and  veneration  by  me. 
To  aid  him  in  his  work  he  had  Logan’s  inspector  gen¬ 
eral,  Lieutenant  Colonel  L.  E.  Yorke. 

The  following  are  the  estimates  of  what  were  so 
destroyed:  1,000  bales  of  cotton,  19  locomotives,  20 

125 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

box  cars;  many  more  bad  been  previously  destroyed 
by  the  great  fire.  Also,  the  buildings  belonging  to  the 
railroad  station — two  large  freight  sheds,  including 
60  sets  of  six-mule-team  harnesses,  1,000  pounds  of 
trace  chains,  quantities  of  nails  and  spikes;  about  five 
tons  of  railroad  machinery,  with  a  large  amount  of  ar¬ 
ticles  of  a  military  character ;  650  car  wheels ;  two 
buildings  filled  with  Confederate  stationery;  25  pow¬ 
der  mills,  the  mills  being  destroyed  by  being  blown 
up;  an  armory  near  the  Congaree  River,  comprising 
warehouse,  machine  shops,  foundries,  and  offices ; 
besides  the  foregoing,  an  immense  amount  of  ord¬ 
nance  of  every  description.  The  smokestacks  of  six 
factories  were  ruined;  a  shed  near  the  Common,  con¬ 
taining  ten  tons  of  machinery  belonging  to  the  Con¬ 
federate  army,  all  packed  in  boxes,  was  consumed  and 
the  machinery  broken  up. 

In  addition  to  the  above  our  Ordnance  Department 
used  all  small  arms  and  ammunition  practicable,  but 
destroyed  the  remainder — perhaps  10,000  small  arms 
and  43  cannon.  Of  the  10,000  rounds  of  artillery 
ammunition  and  500,000  rounds  for  small  arms,  part 
was  taken  and  part  destroyed;  also  rendered  useless 
infantry  and  cavalry  equipments  beyond  estimate. 
Here  at  Columbia  the  magazines  were  ample  and  well 
filled.  We  undertook  to  get  rid  of  the  ammunition, 
loaded  shells  and  such  like,  by  throwing  the  same  into 
the  river.  During  this  operation  a  fearful  accident 
occurred,  in  which  we  lost  in  killed  and  severelv 
wounded  not  less  than  20  men.  The  magazines  them¬ 
selves,  after  being  depleted  sufficiently  for  safety, 
were  blown  to  pieces  by  igniting  the  powder  that  re¬ 
mained.  A  witness,  then  in  Columbia,  says:  “  The 
explosions  of  the  magazines  this  evening  caused  the 

126 


The  Taking  of  Columbia 

ground  to  tremble.”  This  trembling  was  felt  in  a  cir¬ 
cuit  of  several  miles. 

The  very  statement  of  the  destruction  of  property 
indicates  the  terrible  wastes  of  war.  Both  armies 
were  burning  the  cotton.  The  Confederates  seemed 
to  think  that  we,  being  Yankees,  wanted  it  for  gain, 
and  we  believed  that  the  Confederate  government 
depended  upon  this  staple  as  the  foundation  of  their 
revenue,  so  we  burned  it.  One  or  the  other  of  the 
parties  was  evidently  making  a  mistake. 

My  last  glimpse  of  Columbia  after  I  had  done  what 
I  could  for  the  immediate  necessities  of  the  destitute 
inhabitants,  and  had  parted  with  the  mayor  of  the  city, 
was  a  sad  retrospect  to  me,  for  I  had  never  expected 
to  leave  such  a  wild  desert  as  the  regions  burned 
over,  covered  with  blackened  debris,  smoldering  em¬ 
bers,  and  numerous  lone  chimneys,  presented. 

My  rear  guard  for  February  20,  1865,  the  day  of 
departure,  consisted  of  two  brigades,  one  from  each 
corps.  They  were  the  two  that  were  then  guarding 
the  town.  Just  in  advance  of  these,  who  had  brought 
out  all  the  stragglers,  was  a  new  and  remarkable  ac¬ 
cession  to  my  columns,  called  a  “  refugee  train.”  It 
consisted  of  thousands  of  people  who  wished  to  leave 
Columbia,  mostly  negroes  besides  at  least  800  whites. 
The  refugees  carried  their  luggage  on  pack  horses,  on 
their  backs,  or  in  vehicles  of  every  conceivable  de¬ 
scription.  A  variety  of  reasons  caused  this  extraordi¬ 
nary  exodus ;  for  example,  escaping  prisoners  feared 
reincarceration;  those  who  had  betrayed  their  loyalty 
to  the  old  flag,  hitherto  concealed,  feared  revenges; 
those  who  had  been  especially  kind  to  the  Yankees  had 
signs  of  coming  retribution,  and  many  who  had  lost 
everything  by  the  fire  desired  to  escape  extreme  want ; 

127 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

besides  these,  a  number  of  traders,  bent  upon  money¬ 
making,  joined  the  procession  with  wagon  loads  of 
trunks  and  boxes.  I  may  say  that  I  was  obliged  to 
deal  severely  with  the  latter  class,  at  least  with  the 
freightage,  in  order  to  reduce  my  refugee  train  within 
such  limits  that  it  could  be  protected  and  brought 
along  without  detriment  or  hindrance  to  the  fighting 
force  of  the  army. 

In  a  letter  written  a  little  later,  which  I  sent  down 
the  Cape  Fear  River  for  home  consumption,  I  re¬ 
marked  that  we  brought  from  Columbia  quite  a  num¬ 
ber  of  men,  women,  and  children  who  had  trudged 
along  in  wagons,  ambulances,  on  horses,  or  on  foot. 
We  had  two  families  at  our  headquarters  who  had 
completely  mastered  all  the  discomforts  of  military 
life  and  enjoyed  the  novelty. 

A  gentleman  artist,  by  the  name  of  Halpin,  with 
his  wife  and  daughter,  and  a  Mr.  Soule,  a  telegraph 
operator,  with  his  bride,  were  our  guests. 

About  the  time  of  leaving  Columbia  many  robber¬ 
ies  were  committed;  watches,  jewelry,  and  sometimes 
sums  of  money  were  taken  by  violence  from  the  inhab¬ 
itants,  after  the  highwayman’s  style. 

So  many  instances  came  to  my  knowledge  that 
my  indignation  against  the  perpetrators  became  ex¬ 
cessive,  and  my  compassion  for  the  sufferers  strong. 
From  Rice  Creek  Springs,  February  20tli,  I  wrote 
a  letter  to  Logan,  describing  this  apparently  grow¬ 
ing  evil: 

“  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  there  is  a  regularly 
organized  banditti,  who  commit  these  outrages  and 
share  the  spoils.  I  call  upon  you  and  all  the  officers 
and  soldiers  under  you,  who  have  one  spark  of  honor 
or  respect  for  the  profession  which  they  follow,  to 

128 


The  Taking  of  Columbia 

help  me  put  down  these  nefarious  proceedings,  and 
to  arrest  perpetrators. 

“  Please  furnish  to  every  inspector,  provost  marshal, 
and  officer  in  charge  of  a  foraging  party,  a  copy  of 
this  letter,  and  enjoin  them  to  be  on  the  watch  to 
stop  these  infamous  transactions,  and  to  bring  to  jus¬ 
tice  the  individuals  who  commit  them.” 

A  physician,  Dr.  Greene,  came  to  me  and  said: 
“  General,  would  you  allow  your  men  to  take  a  man’s 
watch!  ”  “  No,”  I  answered,  “  you  know  that  I  would 

not.”  “  But,”  he  replied,  “  a  man  took  mine.”  “  Please 
describe  him,  doctor,”  I  said.  “  Oh,  I  can’t  do  that, 
they’re  all  alike,”  was  the  reply.  The  doctor’s 
daughter,  however  (a  girl  of  twelve  or  thirteen),  said, 
“  I  can,  father.”  She  then  described  the  man  and  I 
called  my  provost  marshal,  who  soon  found  the  thief 
and  brought  him  to  me.  The  watch  was  given  back 
to  the  owner  and  I  ordered  the  man  drummed  out  of 
the  army. 

A  little  later  at  Cheraw,  I  had  three  or  four  others 
of  these  unscrupulous  villains  apprehended,  and  pub¬ 
licly  and  summarily  punished  One  had  taken  a 
costly  ring  from  a  lady’s  finger  by  force;  and  the 
others  had  been  caught,  in  -flagrante  delicto ,  pilfering 
from  women’s  bureaus  and  closets.  Soldiers  in  gen¬ 
eral  were  obliged  to  forage  on  the  country  but  they 
did  not  enjoy  the  reputation  or  wish  for  the  company 
of  thieves  and  robbers. 

The  first  day  we  had  a  comparatively  short  march 
along  the  railroad  running  northward.  Sherman’s 
camp  was  at  Winsboro  at  the  end  of  the  second  day, 
while  mine  was  at  Harrison’s  Crossroads.  From  that 
point  I  turned  to  the  right  to  cross  the  upper  waters 
of  the  Catawba.  Sherman  wrote  from  Winsboro : 

129 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

After  crossing,  Slocum  and  the  cavalry  will  have  the  road 
from  Lancaster  to  Chesterfield,  and  you  (Howard)  from  your 
ferry  go  straight  for  Cheraw,  dipping  a  little  south  to  get  on  the 
Camden  road.  I  will  keep  with  the  Twentieth  Corps. 

From  this  it  will  be  seen  what  a  wide  swath  we 
were  making,  and  the  general  direction  taken  by  the 
whole  command.  At  Perry’s  Ferry,  across  the  Wa- 
teree  River,  I  spent  the  night  of  February  22d.  The 
country  had  begun  to  be  fertile  and  rolling,  with  bet¬ 
ter  farms  than  those  near  Columbia.  There  was  some 
show  of  hostile  cavalry  in  our  front,  which  we  pushed 
back  as  we  marched.  The  Wateree  was  between  300 
and  400  feet  wide,  and  had  quite  a  strong  flow.  Sher¬ 
man’s  retaliatory  work  has  often  been  mentioned.  I 
think  it  began  from  an  occurrence  of  this  day.  Two 
of  our  men  were  found  not  only  slain,  but  with  their 
brains  beaten  out.  We  judged  that  they  had  been 
captured  first  and  then  murdered. 

Several  men  in  another  column  were  killed  in  the 
same  way  and  labels  pinned  upon  them.  On  the  la¬ 
bels  were  these  words :  “  Death  to  all  foragers.” 
These  are  Sherman’s  words  to  me,  which  he  wrote  af¬ 
ter  finding  repeated  acts  like  the  above : 

I  have  ordered  Kilpatrick  to  select  of  his  prisoners,  man  for 
man,  shoot  them,  and  leave  them  by  the  roadside  labeled,  so 
that  our  enemy  will  see  for  every  man  he  executes  he  takes  the 
life  of  one  of  his  own. 

After  defining  proper  and  improper  foraging, 
Sherman  continues :  “  I  lay  down  these  rules,  and  wish 
you  to  be  governed  by  them.  If  any  of  your  foragers 
are  murdered,  take  life  for  life,  leaving  a  record  of 
each  case.” 

It  is  quite  surprising  how  quickly  the  Confederates, 

130 


The  Taking  of  Columbia 

in  the  army  and  outside  of  it,  found  out  this  terrible 
rule  of  our  leader.  I  do  not  remember  an  instance 
after  that  in  my  command  of  brutal  slaying. 

This  same  day,  February  22d,  Washington’s  birth¬ 
day,  brought  us  the  first  intimation  that  the  Confeder¬ 
ates  had  evacuated  Charleston.  Gillmore’s  troops  had 
entered  the  city,  and  captured  a  large  amount  of  ar¬ 
tillery  and  other  stores.  This  was  good  news,  brought 
by  the  negroes,  who  always  enjoyed  telling  us  such 
things,  but  it  indicated  to  me  an  increased  opposition 
to  our  advance ;  for  already  we  were  hearing  not  only 
of  Hardee  drawing  in  his  various  garrisons,  but  of 
Bragg,  Cheatham,  and  Stephen  D.  Lee.  We  then 
knew  that  the  remnants  which  Thomas  and  Schofield 
had  not  destroyed  of  Hood’s  army  at  Nashville,  Tenn., 
as  well  as  the  troops  from  Augusta,  Ga.,  were  hasten¬ 
ing  to  strengthen  Hardee’s  resistance  to  our  advance. 

We  had  about  the  same  experience  day  after  day 
with  ever  increasing  obstacles,  till  we  came  near  what 
is  called  Lynch’s  Creek,  in  ordinary  times  a  stream 
not  to  exceed  200  feet ;  but  when  we  approached,  owing 
to  the  recent  freshet,  the  creek  overflowed  its  banks, 
and  so,  though  not  deep,  it  spread  over  a  wide  stretch 
of  country,  covering  in  extent  at  least  a  mile. 

The  Fifteenth  Corps  here  had  a  hard  time.  After 
the  Seventeenth  Corps  had  passed  with  considerable 
difficulty,  the  corduroy,  which  had  been  laid  under  the 
water  and  pinned  down,  became  loose,  and  naturally 
rose  to  the  surface  and  became  separated.  Quick¬ 
sands  were  discovered  in  many  places  where  our  en¬ 
gineers  and  pioneers  sought  to  put  in  trestlework,  so 
that  there  was  much  delay,  much  impatience,  and 
some  quarreling.  Here  a  slight  contretemps  occurred 
between  Logan  and  myself. 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

He,  as  corps  commander,  bad  direct  charge  of  the 
pioneers,  and  I,  as  army  commander,  of  the  engineers. 
The  engineers  and  pioneers  were  not  able  to  mend 
the  ways,  owing  to  the  high  water,  or  finish  the 
bridges  to  their  satisfaction.  At  last  they,  in  their 
impatience,  had  hard  words  between  them.  Logan 
naturally  sided  with  the  pioneers,  and  so  wrote  me  a 
note  that  he  would  make  no  further  effort  to  cross 
that  ugly  stream  unless  I  withdrew  the  engineers  who 
were  constantly  making  trouble.  I  received  the  letter 
at  the  hands  of  a  messenger,  read  it  carefully,  slowly 
folded  it,  as  we  were  taught  to  do  with  official  commu¬ 
nications,  and  then  wrote  on  the  outside  a  pleasant 
message  in  indirect  fashion:  “  The  commanding  officer 
of  the  Fifteenth  Corps  will  obey  every  lawful  order.” 
I  signed  this  indorsement  and  sent  it  back  to  Logan. 
We  met  about  twenty  minutes  after  this  exchange  of 
compliment  and  neither  of  us  said  aught  more  con¬ 
cerning  the  matter;  luckily  we  succeeded  at  last  in 
crossing  the  troublesome  barrier. 

As  we  went  on  to  Cheraw  it  was  necessary  to  guard 
well  our  right  flank.  Having  very  little  cavalry,  I 
sent  southward  and  eastward  Captain  Wm.  Duncan 
with  all  his  horsemen,  about  two  troops  of  cavalry, 
first  toward  Camden.  The  evening  of  February  25th 
Duncan  returned  from  the  first  expedition.  He  suc¬ 
ceeded  in  burning  an  important  bridge  in  Camden  and 
in  capturing,  for  the  use  of  the  army,  considerable 
stock. 

It  was  here  that  the  famous  white  Arabian  stallion 
was  brought  in,  one  that  the  people  declared  to  be  the 
property  of  the  Confederate  President.  The  horse, 
they  said,  had  been,  previous  to  our  coming,  sent  into 
that  part  of  Carolina  for  safe  keeping.  The  second 

132 


The  Taking  of  Columbia 

expedition  had  a  double  purpose ;  first,  to  reconnoiter, 
and  second,  to  serve  as  an  escort  to  a  delegation  which 
I  was  sending  through  to  Charleston.  This  time  Dun¬ 
can,  in  the  night,  ran  into  a  Confederate  brigade  of 
cavalry,  apparently  commanded  by  Colonel  Aiken. 
The  darkness  was  so  great  that  neither  commander 
could  tell  the  strength  of  his  opponent. 

Aiken  gave  the  order  to  charge,  but  Duncan,  who 
was  ready,  instantly  ordered  “  Fire !  ”  In  the  melee 
that  ensued  Aiken  with  many  others  was  killed.  Los¬ 
ing  their  leader  the  Confederates  fell  back.  It  was 
here  that  Lieutenant  McQueen  was  wounded.  Duncan 
drew  off  his  men  with  small  loss. 

The  mixing  up  was  so  complete  during  the  night 
fight  that  one  of  our  men  borrowed  a  screw-driver  of 
a  comrade  to  fix  his  carbine,  and  discovered  that  that 
comrade  was  a  Confederate.  The  loss  of  McQueen, 
for  he  was  supposed  at  that  time  to  be  mortally 
wounded,  genial  gentleman  as  he  was,  caused  great 
sorrow  at  our  headquarters. 


133 


CHAPTER  XLIV 


SKIRMISHING  AT  CHERAW  AND  FAYETTEVILLE  AND  THE 

BATTLE  OF  AVERYSBORO 


HERAW  was  pretty  thoroughly  defended  with 


intrenchments  and  outworks ;  on  my  coming  up 
with  Mower’s  command  ahead,  I  found  him  leading 
his  division  in  his  own  indomitable  style.  The  Con¬ 
federate  cavalry  met  us  at  Thompson’s  Creek,  hut 
being  cavalry  only,  they  quickly  gave  way  to  Mower’s 
coming,  but  set  the  bridge  on  fire.  Our  men  quenched 
the  fire  at  once  and  followed  speedily  nearer  to  the 
town.  A  firm  stand  was  made  here  by  our  adversaries 
to  enable  them  to  cover  the  next  bridge  across  the 
Pedee  with  turpentine.  At  last,  as  the  Confederates 
rushed  across,  they  succeeded  in  setting  behind  them 
a  quick  fire,  and  one  that  became  immediately  so  furi¬ 
ous  that  Mower’s  men  could  not  save  the  bridge. 

Here,  as  at  Columbia,  a  depot  and  several  store¬ 
houses  were  already  in  flames  when  our  men  entered 
the  city  of  Cheraw.  Quite  a  large  amount  of  war 
material  came  into  our  hands  by  capture.  By  the 
newspapers  which  I  found  there  the  news  of  the 
taking  of  Charleston,  and  also  of  Wilmington,  was 
confirmed. 

Here  we  noticed  the  action  of  the  Confederate  Con¬ 
gress  putting  into  service  boys  and  old  men.  That 
body  was  also  considering  the  expediency  of  organ¬ 
izing  negro  troops.  In  this  we  already  had  the  start 


134 


Skirmishing  at  Cheraw  and  Fayetteville 

of  them.  Terry  was  near  us  with  negro  brigades  well 
in  hand. 

About  this  time  old  men  and  boys  began  to  fall  into 
our  lines.  Logan  recommended  on  March  4th  that  all 
such  prisoners  belonging  to  the  South  Carolina  mili¬ 
tia  be  released  upon  their  parole  and  oath  not  to  serve 
again  during  the  war.  He  remarked :  “  They  now  are 
but  a  burden  to  us,  requiring  an  issue  of  subsistence 
when  it  is  necessary  to  husband  our  supply,  and  they 
can  scarcely  be  looked  upon  as  fit  subjects  for  im¬ 
prisonment  or  exchange.”  This  sensible  disposition 
of  them  was  made. 

There  were  two  sources  of  chagrin  which  annoyed 
me  at  Cheraw :  one  was  that  a  detachment  which  I  sent 
to  Florence  had  not  been  sufficiently  vigorous  in  its 
reconnoissance.  The  officers  conducting  it,  however, 
discovered  a  force  of  Confederate  cavalry,  and  trains 
of  cars  loaded  with  troops,  and  brought  back  20  or 
30  prisoners. 

The  second  chagrin  was  from  an  accident  like  that 
at  Columbia.  Charles  R.  Woods’s  division  of  infan¬ 
try  was  massed  near  the  river  waiting  their  turn  to 
cross,  when  a  terrific  explosion  occurred.  It  was  oc¬ 
casioned  by  our  working  parties  having  thrown  to¬ 
gether  on  the  river  slope  masses  of  artillery  shells, 
with  considerable  powder.  The  object  had  been  to 
drown  the  powder  in  the  river,  and  also  to  sink  the 
shells  in  the  water  to  render  them  useless.  By  care¬ 
lessness  considerable  powder  had  been  strewn  along 
the  ground.  The  teams  passing  over  the  bridge  road 
had  in  some  way  ignited  it  and  its  lightning  flashes 
passed  to  the  main  pile  of  shells.  The  sudden  thun¬ 
derous  explosion  for  the  time  appeared  to  paralyze 
men  and  animals.  The  mules  and  horses  near  by  ran 

135 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

off  wildly  in  a  stampede.  One  officer  and  three  en¬ 
listed  men  were  killed  outright,  and  at  least  a  dozen 
or  more  of  the  soldiers  were  disabled.  Thus  disaster 
followed  acts  of  inexcusable  carelessness ! 

On  March  5th,  finding  that  Hardee  had  withdrawn 
from  my  front  across  the  Great  Pedee,  which  was 
about  500  feet  broad,  and  as  my  bridge  was  already 
laid,  the  crossing  of  my  command  at  Clieraw  was  soon 
completed.  We  now  hastened  on  toward  Fayetteville. 
Sherman,  having  news  of  accessions  to  Hardee’s  force 
from  above  and  below  and  from  the  east,  and  also 
that  his  old  contestant,  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  was 
in  command,  wrote  me  that  he  believed  that  the 
Confederates  would  make  a  stand  for  battle  near 
Fayetteville  west  of  the  Cape  Fear  River.  I  an¬ 
swered  that  I  thought  not,  unless  we  pushed  them 
so  hard  that  they  could  not  get  out  of  the  way.  The 
position  might  have  been  good  against  my  column 
alone,  but  at  this  time  Slocum  was  so  near  me  that 
Johnston  would  have  had  to  encounter  Sherman’s 
united  force. 

The  events  proved  that  my  judgment  was  correct, 
for  this  astute  Confederate  commander,  realizing  his 
relative  weakness,  waited  a  little  till  the  two  wings  had 
separated  one  from  the  other.  As  we  shall  shortly 
see,  he  struck  Slocum  first,  because  he  was  handiest, 
after  Slocum  had  deviated  northward  and  was  passing 
through  Averysboro. 

Going  on,  March  8th,  I  made  my  headquarters  for 
the  night  at  Laurel  Hill,  Richmond  County,  N.  C. 
It  was  this  day  that  we  crossed  the  line  between  South 
and  North  Carolina.  The  Fifteenth  Corps  was  near 
me,  and  the  Seventeenth  a  little  in  advance.  Slocum’s 
command,  the  left  wing,  was  not  many  miles  to  the 

136 


Skirmishing  at  Cheraw  and  Fayetteville 

north,  and  well  up  abreast.  That  evening  Sherman 
requested  me  if  possible  while  pursuing  the  enemy  to 
so  slow  up  my  march  as  to  let  the  left  wing  seize 
Fayetteville.  The  reason  given  was  that  Slocum’s 
division  would  have  the  advantage  which  arose  from 
the  primary  occupation  of  a  town.  Increase  of  sup¬ 
plies  as  well  as  honor  thus  usually  came  to  the  first 
occupants. 

I  was  not  far  from  Dan’s  Bridge  when  Captain 
Duncan,  having  my  consent,  with  his  scouts  and  a 
small  escort  pushed  on  ahead  to  Fayetteville.  He 
found  some  show  of  a  picket  line  which  he  avoided, 
and  came  to  what  is  called  Little  Rock  Fish  Creek 
Bridge,  which  was  unaccountably  spared  by  the  enemy. 

Of  this  Duncan  immediately  took  possession.  Very 
early  the  next  morning  (March  11th)  I  instructed  Dun¬ 
can  to  take  all  our  mounted  men  (liis  own  and  Captain 
King’s)  and  scout  toward  Fayetteville  and  keep  us 
informed  of  what  was  going  on.  He  again  encoun¬ 
tered  the  enemy’s  pickets  just  before  reaching  the  city. 
He  drove  them  so  easily  before  him  that  he  did  not 
anticipate  much  force  ahead,  and  so  pressed  on  into 
the  city  itself.  Duncan,  while  caring  for  his  men,  dis¬ 
covered  a  large  force  of  cavalry  on  some  high  ground 
ready  to  pounce  upon  him.  He  succeeded,  however, 
in  saving  his  command,  but  he  himself  in  the  rear  was 
captured;  he,  however,  escaped  and  came  into  bivouac 
and  was  described  by  Sherman  as  having  been 
stripped  of  everything  valuable,  and  being  clothed  in 
an  old  unpresentable  dress.  The  account  of  Duncan’s 
interviews  with  Butler,  Hampton,  and  Hardee  was 
very  entertaining,  and  is  still,  as  he  vividly  recalls  it. 
Hardee,  Duncan  declares,  treated  him  with  kindness, 
but  was  very  anxious  to  find  how  he  had  happened 

137 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

to  seize  the  bridge  and  pass  the  pickets  with  so  small 
a  force  of  horsemen. 

Duncan’s  men  reported  to  us  that  very  day  the  cir¬ 
cumstances,  so  that  Giles  A.  Smith’s  column  could  not 
safely  delay  any  longer.  Smith  sent  forward  at  once 
a  troop  of  mounted  men.  They  joined  the  returning 
scouts,  then  followed  up  the  Confederate  cavalry  as 
they  ran  back;  when  the  Confederate  rear  guard  was 
crossing  the  river  our  men  soon  had  possession  of  the 
hill  where  the  Fayetteville  arsenal  was  situated. 

Just  as  the  last  Confederate  horseman  was  clear¬ 
ing  the  bridge  over  the  Cape  Fear,  Potts’s  brigade,  the 
leading  one  of  Smith’s  division,  arrived  on  the  field. 
Potts  first  took  position  on  Arsenal  Hill,  and  then 
quickly  deployed  his  skirmishers  along  the  river  bank 
under  instructions  to  make  every  endeavor  to  save  the 
bridge.  But  the  preparation  for  its  destruction  was 
too  complete. 

The  Confederates  placed  their  cannon  in  a  good 
position  on  the  farther  shore,  and  shelled  out  skir¬ 
mishers,  regardless  of  the  houses  of  Fayetteville, 
while  the  long  bridge  was  bursting  into  brilliant  flame. 
As  our  columns  came  in  from  the  south  roads,  Slo¬ 
cum’s  leading  corps,  the  Fourteenth,  entered  the  town 
from  the  northwest.  The  mayor,  doubtless  having 
been  attracted  by  Captain  Duncan’s  daring  raid  to  the 
southern  part  of  the  town,  hastened  toward  us,  and  so 
made  a  formal  tender  of  the  city  to  Lieutenant  Colonel 
Strong  of  my  staff. 

Many  of  our  men,  mounted  foragers  and  others, 
were  found  lying  dead  in  the  streets.  Eemembering 
Sherman’s  wishes,  as  soon  as  I  met  Slocum  I  retired 
outside  the  city  limits,  and  there  went  into  camp. 

Logan  halted  his  force  at  least  five  miles  back. 

138 


Skirmishing  at  Cheraw  and  Fayetteville 

We  found  the  best  practicable  approaches  for  our  pon¬ 
toon  bridge  a  mile  below  Fayetteville,  opposite  Mr. 
Cade’s  plantation.  The  banks,  however,  even  here 
were  steep  and  difficult.  The  water  was  subsiding,  so 
that  in  a  short  time  our  bridge  was  depressed,  and  the 
wagons  were  lowered  on  one  side  of  the  river  and,  to 
use  an  old  English  word,  “  boosted  ”  up  by  soldiers 
on  the  other  side  with  much  labor.  When  a  bridge¬ 
head  of  sufficient  extent  had  been  made,  I  put  my 
headquarters,  March  13th,  near  Mr.  Cade’s  house,  and 
stayed  there  until  the  16th  of  the  same  month. 

Sherman  very  much  wished  to  get  communications 
to  Wilmington,  and,  if  possible,  receive  back  word 
from  the  same,  while  Logan  and  I  were  anxious  to  re¬ 
establish  mail  communication.  After  consulting  with 
Captain  Duncan,  I  selected  Sergeant  Myron  J.  Amick, 
Fifteenth  Illinois  Cavalry,  and  Private  Geo.  W.  Quim- 
by,  Thirty-second  Wisconsin,  the  two  enlisted  men  that 
had  made  with  Duncan  the  perilous  and  successful  ex¬ 
pedition  down  the  Ogeechee  and  communicated  with 
the  fleet;  furnished  with  as  much  mail  matter  as  well 
as  dispatches  as  they  could  comfortably  carry,  I 
started  them  off  to  Wilmington. 

Sherman  had  sent  another  messenger  to  float  down 
the  Cape  Fear.  My  party  crossed  the  river  at  Camp¬ 
bell’s  Bridge  and  succeeded  in  avoiding  squads  of  the 
enemy’s  cavalry  or  other  hostiles  whom  they  met,  and 
finished  their  journey  successfully  in  48  hours.  Just 
after  our  arrival  at  Fayetteville,  and  after  the  first 
excitement  of  the  skirmishing  had  subsided,  we  heard 
the  whistle  of  a  steam  tug  below  us  on  the  Cape  Fear 
River.  This  vessel  had  set  out  at  once  for  Fayette¬ 
ville  on  receiving  news  through  Sergeant  Amick  and  his 
companion  of  our  whereabouts.  Shortly  before  this, 

139 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

some  of  Blair’s  men,  skirmishing  down  the  river,  had 
discovered  a  small  Confederate  steamer  and  captured 
it,  with  its  freight  of  cotton  and  forage. 

The  15th  of  the  month  one  of  our  gunboats  reached 
us  and  was  followed  by  other  steamers.  They  brought 
us  mail,  sugar,  coffee,  shoes,  and  forage  which  were 
most  welcome. 

It  was  here  that  Sherman  took  advantage  of  re¬ 
turning  steamers  to  send  our  sick  to  better  accommo¬ 
dations  and  to  forward  mail  for  the  whole  command. 
The  remaining  space  on  the  vessels  was  occupied  by 
the  refugees,  whom  I  have  before  described.  Besides 
these,  a  column  of  whites  and  negroes,  with  all  their 
indescribable  belongings,  were  organized  in  a  military 
way  and  sent  down  the  river  road.  From  the  numer¬ 
ous  men  going  out  of  the  service,  I  furnished  them 
abundant  guards  and  wagons  sufficient  to  carry  the 
small  children,  the  sick,  and  the  extra  food.  It  was  a 
singular  spectacle  that  drew  out  of  camp  on  Wednes¬ 
day,  March  1 5,  1865,  and  set  out  for  Wilmington  via 
Clinton.  There  were  4,500,  mostly  negroes,  from  my 
wing  alone. 

Feeling  pretty  sure  that  Joe  Johnston,  our  new  ad¬ 
versary,  who  was  somewhere  in  our  path,  would  soon 
make  a  stand  or  an  attack,  the  entire  command,  under 
Sherman’s  instructions,  stripped  for  battle;  that  is  to 
say,  the  wagon  trains,  except  those  absolutely  essential, 
were  thrown  back,  kept  well  together  and  placed  under 
special  escort,  covered,  of  course,  by  the  rear  guard. 

Slocum,  deviating  from  our  direct  march  toward 
Goldsboro,  went  by  the  way  of  Kyle’s  Landing,  aim¬ 
ing  for  Bentonville,  while  his  wagon  train  followed 
the  Goldsboro  route.  Kilpatrick’s  cavalry  was  clear¬ 
ing  the  way  on  Slocum’s  left  and  front.  Slocum  found, 

140 


Skirmishing  at  Cheraw  and  Fayetteville 

March  6tli,  a  large  Confederate  force  across  the  way 
near  Averysboro.  It  proved  to  be  Hardee,  not  John¬ 
ston,  in  immediate  command.  Kilpatrick  came  upon 
the  enemy  behind  intrencliments  and  moved  to  the 
right,  while  Slocum  deployed  two  divisions  of  the 
Twentieth  Corps  in  front  of  the  enemy’s  line. 

Sherman  joined  Slocum  and  directed  him  to  send 
a  brigade  to  the  left  so  as  to  get  a  ford  in  rear  of  the 
Confederate  intrenchments.  This  was  successfully 
accomplished.  The  enemy  retreated  and  MacBeth’s 
Charleston  battery  with  217  of  Rliett’s  men  were  cap¬ 
tured.  The  Confederates  were  found  behind  another 
line  of  works,  a  short  distance  in  rear  of  the  first. 
Both  operations  constituted  the  battle.  Slocum  skir¬ 
mished  up  to  the  new  position,  and  went  into  camp  “  in 
their  immediate  front.”  During  the  night  Hardee  re¬ 
treated,  leaving  108  dead  for  Slocum  to  bury  and  68 
wounded.  We  lost  12  officers  and  65  men  killed  and 
477  men  wounded. 

It  is  evident  that  my  movement  across  the  Black 
River  and  touching  the  Averysboro  road  on  that  same 
day,  where  I  was  waiting  to  turn  back  upon  Hardee’s 
left,  was  wliat  caused  him  to  retreat  without  further 
battle.  Now,  it  is  plain  from  all  accounts  that  John¬ 
ston  in  good  earnest  was  gathering  in  all  the  troops 
he  could  at  or  near  Bentonville.  A  dispatch  men¬ 
tioned  Stephen  D.  Lee,  Stevenson,  Stewart,  Cheatham, 
Hampton,  and  Hardee  as  near  at  hand. 

Johnston’s  instructions,  which  he  received  from 
Richmond,  February  23d,  at  his  residence  in  Lincoln- 
ton,  N.  C.,  were:  “  To  concentrate  all  available  forces 
and  drive  Sherman  back.”  “  This  was  done,”  John¬ 
ston  alleges,  “  with  a  full  consciousness  on  my  part, 
however,  that  we  could  have  no  other  object  in  con- 

141 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

tinning  tlie  war  than  to  obtain  fair  terms  of  peace; 
for  the  Southern  cause  must  have  appeared  hopeless 
then  to  all  intelligent  and  dispassionate  Southern 
men.” 

With  these  instructions  and  this  natural  feeling, 
Johnston  gathered  from  all  quarters,  as  near  as  I  can 
estimate,  from  20,000  to  25,000  men. 

March  18th  Slocum’s  wing  was  continuing  its  ad¬ 
vance  toward  Bentonville.  My  wing  the  same  day 
upon  the  next  road  to  the  south  was  doing  the  same 
thing,  but  from  the  character  of  the  country  I  was 
obliged  to  deviate  so  much  that  our  wings  were  sepa¬ 
rated  more  and  more  from  each  other  till  Logan  turned 
northward  and  encamped  near  Alexander  Benton’s, 
about  11  miles  south  of  Bentonville,  while  Blair  was 
back  near  Troublefield’s  store.  I  was  then  with 
Logan’s  head  of  column  and  General  Sherman  was 
with  Blair’s. 

Slocum  at  the  same  time  appeared  to  be  abreast 
of  Logan,  perhaps  six  miles  to  his  left  northwest  of 
him.  We  had  but  little  resistance  on  our  front,  and 
that  from  Confederate  cavalry.  The  roads,  which  ap¬ 
peared  fair,  became  immediately  bad  by  use  and  so 
straggled  my  columns. 


142 


CHAPTER  XLV 


MARCH  THROUGH  THE  CAROLINAS ;  THE  BATTLE  OF  BEN¬ 
TO  nville  ;  Johnston’s  surrender 

T  WAS  obliged  to  detail  a  brigade  to  repair  the 
-*•  worst  places  near  Falling  Creek.  As  I  was  ob¬ 
serving  the  rapid  and  handy  work  of  this  (General 
Clarke’s)  brigade,  I  heard  heavy  firing  in  the  dis¬ 
tance  from  the  direction  of  Bentonville;  and  instantly 
I  sent  off  our  chief  of  artillery,  Major  Osborn,  to 
pass  to  the  rear  of  Logan’s  column  and  turn  Hazen’s 
division  back  upon  Slocum’s  road  as  quickly  as  pos¬ 
sible,  in  case  the  need  was  evident  upon  his  reaching 
Hazen. 

Report  was  brought  to  Sherman  and  to  me  that 
it  was  only  Confederate  cavalry  that  Slocum  had  thus 
far  met,  and  that  he  was  driving  it  before  him.  Ha¬ 
zen’s  movement  was  then  delayed. 

This  news  made  me  believe  that  Johnston  might 
fall  back  by  the  road  which  crossed  Cox’s  Bridge  over 
the  Neuse.  That  road  was  the  only  practicable  one 
for  him  to  pass  over  in  an  easterly  direction.  I  im¬ 
mediately  sent  Colonel  Strong  of  my  staff  to  secure 
the  bridge.  He  took  with  him  the  Tenth  Iowa,  moved 
rapidly,  drove  a  few  hundred  Confederate  cavalry  be¬ 
fore  him  across  the  bridge,  secured  the  crossroads 
near  it,  and  rapidly  fortified  the  position.  The  heavy 
firing  continued  and  seemed  to  increase,  and  we  very 

143 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

much  feared  from  the  sound,  and  from  a  report 
brought  by  Lieutenant  Foraker  (since  so  well  known 
as  the  Hon.  Joseph  B.  Foraker,  Senator  from  Ohio) 
of  Slocum’s  staff,  that  Slocum’s  column  was  having  a 
very  hard  battle.  On  Foraker’s  arrival  and  report, 
the  order  to  send  Hazen’s  division  was  now  given  by 
Sherman  himself. 

Several  messengers  gave  us  to  understand  that 
during  this  day,  March  19th,  Slocum,  though  losing 
some  ground,  had  repulsed  several  furious  assaults 
of  the  Confederate  infantry,  and  that  he  had  secured 
a  strong  position,  which  he  could  hold  until  reenforced 
by  our  right  wing. 

Hazen  kept  up  his  reverse  march  and  reported  to 
Slocum  by  daylight  of  the  20th.  Logan  closed  up  his 
command  at  night,  forced  the  enemy  to  destroy  Cox’s 
Bridge,  and  at  once  commenced  his  march  by  the  river 
road  toward  Bentonville. 

Meanwhile  Blair  also  used  the  night  to  bring  up 
his  column  near  to  Logan.  In  fact,  our  marching  was 
continuous  until  the  two  wings  were  in  touch  with  each 
other.  My  men  were  driving  back  the  enemy’s  cav¬ 
alry  skirmishers  and  squadrons  until  between  ten  and 
eleven  on  the  morning  of  March  20th. 

If  we  connect  Fayetteville  with  Averysboro  by  a 
right  line,  then  Averysboro  with  Smithfield,  and  Smith- 
held  with  Goldsboro,  and  join  also  Goldsboro  with 
Fayetteville,  we  have  an  oblong,  four-sided  figure. 
The  distance  from  Fayetteville  to  Goldsboro  is  about 
50  miles ;  the  other  separate  distances,  following  the 
perimeter,  are  from  20  to  25  miles  each.  This  oblong 
figure  was  the  terrain  which  covered  the  maneuvers 
and  the  two  battles  of  Averysboro  and  Bentonville. 
Bentonville  is  a  point  as  near  the  middle  of  this  terrain 

144 


The  Battle  of  Bentonville 


as  you  can  place  it.  Sherman’s  army  started  one  wing 
from  Fayetteville,  and  the  other  wing  from  behind 
Averysboro.  His  mind,  fully  determined,  was  to  pass 
from  the  Cape  Fear  Biver  to  the  Neuse,  making  Golds¬ 
boro  his  objective  point. 

As  Schofield  and  Terry  had  Wilmington,  New 
Berne  and  Kinston,  and  were  moving  northward  to 
form  a  junction  with  us,  Sherman  greatly  desired  to 
make  this  connection  and  secure  Goldsboro  before 
fighting  a  general  battle.  He  believed  that  the  enemy 
would  fall  back  to  Smithfield,  and  perhaps  to  Raleigh 
after  the  hard  blows  lie  had  received  at  Averysboro ; 
so  that  it  is  very  plain  that  Bentonville  was  not  Sher¬ 
man’s  objective. 

Johnston,  on  the  other  hand,  had  his  eye  upon  Ben¬ 
tonville.  He  was  at  Smithfield  when  our  parties  de¬ 
parted  from  the  Cape  Fear  River  gathering  up  his 
forces.  He  proposed  to  throw  them  boltlike  upon  our 
upper  column  when  isolated  near  Bentonville.  Ben¬ 
tonville  was  then  indeed  a  strategic  and  objective 
point  for  ,  the  Confederates. 

Aiming  for  Goldsboro  caused  the  separation  of  our 
columns  and  made  us  unready  March  19th  when  the 
Confederates  began  their  first  attack.  At  that  instant 
Blair  was  as  far  south  as  Troublefield’s  store,  but  he 
was  on  the  direct  road  to  Goldsboro.  Logan,  with 
the  bulk  of  his  corps,  had  really  passed  beyond  Ben¬ 
tonville,  and  but  for  the  detention  of  battle  would 
have  gone  there. 

Wade  Hampton,  commanding  the  entire  Confed¬ 
erate  cavalry  before  us,  was  falling  back  on  Slocum’s 
road  toward  Bentonville.  Johnston,  strengthened  by 
news  that  Hampton  kept  sending  to  him,  that  our 
wings  were  so  separated  and  marching  as  I  have  indi- 

145 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

cated,  did  as  he  had  done  before,  particularly  at  the 
battle  of  Fair  Oaks.  He  struck  a  portion  of  the  Union 
army,  temporarily  isolated,  and  he  hoped  to  crush  it 
before  our  troops  could  be  brought  back. 

It  appeared  to  me  that  the  ground  chosen  by  Hamp¬ 
ton,  which  Johnston  occupied  the  morning  of  the  19th, 
substantially  along  the  Clinton  road,  with  high  ground 
and  a  good  artillery  position  west  of  it  at  right  angles 
to  Slocum’s  road  of  approach,  could  not  have  been 
better  selected. 

Hampton  says :  “  The  plan  proposed  was  that  the 
cavalry  should  move  out  at  daylight  and  occupy  the 
position  held  by  them  on  the  previous  evening.  The 
infantry  could  then  be  deployed,  putting  one  corps 
across  the  main  road  and  the  other  two  obliquely  in 
echelon  to  the  right  of  the  first.” 

Hampton’s  cavalry,  after  checking  Slocum’s  ad¬ 
vance  as  long  as  practicable,  was  to  fall  back  through 
intervals  in  Bragg’s  line  and  pass  off  to  the  right  of 
the  troops  and  guard  that  flank. 

Carlin’s  division  (Fourteenth  Corps),  heading 
Slocum’s  column  quite  early  on  the  morning  of  March 
19th,  was  moving  on  toward  Bentonville  in  column, 
having  out  in  his  front  and  on  his  flank  the  usual  skir¬ 
mish  line. 

The  enemy’s  cavalry  appeared  at  first  to  be  more 
stubborn  than  usual ;  so  much  so  that  Carlin  deployed 
his  division  to  the  left  and  Corps  Commander  Davis 
ordered  Morgan  to  deploy  his  division  so  as  to  cover 
Carlin’s  right.  This  deployment  was  intended  to  force 
back  the  Confederate  cavalry,  or  (if  they  were  there) 
to  develop  infantry  and  artillery.  It  was  this  force 
which  pressed  Hampton’s  cavalry  so  hard  that  it  has¬ 
tened  back  to  perform  its  allotted  work;  then,  Hamp- 

146 


The  Battle  of  Bentonville 


ton  being  out  of  the  way,  the  Confederate  infantry 
opened  its  fire  at  short  range  against  the  Fourteenth 
Corps. 

After  the  first  encounter  Carlin’s  men  seem  to  have 
been  considerably  shaken.  Perceiving  some  show  of 
disorder,  the  Confederates  took  the  offensive,  advan¬ 
cing  steadily  against  Carlin’s  left.  There  was  doubt¬ 
less  some  breaking  here  and  there,  but  Slocum’s  men 
were  veterans,  and  quickly  rallied.  The  Twentieth 
Corps  and  the  remainder  of  the  Fourteenth  not  en¬ 
gaged  were  hastily  forming  a  new  line,  half  a  mile  to 
the  rear.  Johnston  puts  it  this  way: 

“  Some  distance  in  the  rear  there  was  a  thick  wood 
of  young  pines,  into  which  the  Federal  troops  were 
pursued,  and  in  which  they  rallied  and  renewed  the 
fight.”  Slocum  by  his  language  implies  an  enforced 
retreat  to  the  prepared  position ;  but  says  that  the  re¬ 
tiring  troops  “  were  handled  with  skill,  and  fell  back 
without  panic  or  demoralization,  taking  places  in  the 
line  established.” 

Here  at  the  second  position  the  engagement  was 
renewed,  but  the  opposition  was  too  strong  for  John¬ 
ston’s  men  to  overcome.  They  charged  again  and 
again,  but  finally  retired  beyond  range,  hoping  to  re¬ 
new  the  attack  the  next  morning;  but  during  the 
night  Johnston  was  assured  that  I  was  pushing  in 
my  command  toward  him  from  the  east  along  the 
road  from  Cox’s  Bridge,  so  that  he  immediately  took 
a  new  position  where  he  could  face  both  myself  and 
Slocum. 

That  position  was  an  enlarged  bridgehead,  em-' 
bracing  Bentonville  and  covering  the  crossing  of  Mill 
Creek  by  the  Smithfield  road. 

I  believe  the  Confederate  lines  were  rather  irregu- 

147 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

lar  and  broken,  but  so  established  as  to  make  a  thor¬ 
ough  defense  of  the  village  and  of  the  Confederate  line 
of  retreat.  I  hardly  think  that  Johnston  could  have 
done  better,  even  if  he  had  followed  up  more  quickly 
Carlin’s  retiring  men. 

There  was  so  much  more  woodland  than  open 
ground  in  the  vicinity  of  Bentonville  and  so  much 
marshy  or  spongy  soil  that  quick  maneuvering  was 
impossible.  Leading  my  force,  I  approached  Benton¬ 
ville,  threw  a  brigade  and  battery  toward  Cox’s  bridge 
to  save  it,  and  kept  back  any  enemy  coming  from  that 
quarter.  The  bridge  was  burned  upon  our  approach. 
We  had  similar  experience  to  Slocum  with  detach¬ 
ments  of  the  Confederate  cavalry  becoming  more  and 
more  stubborn  as  we  advanced. 

A  little  nearer  the  village  we  struck  a  crossroad 
where  there  was  a  Confederate  outpost  held  by  infan¬ 
try  in  the  edge  of  a  wood.  This  caused  the  deploy¬ 
ment  of  a  part  of  Woods’s  division,  which  was  on  the 
lead.  The  point  was  soon  cleared,  though  a  strong 
Confederate  skirmish  line  well  reenforced  kept  us  and 
Slocum  (or  I  should  say  Hazen)  back;  that  was  Ha- 
zen’s  position  after  Slocum  had  closed  up  upon  John¬ 
ston’s  new  works.  The  Confederate  resistance  was  so 
great  that  it  took  me  until  three  o’clock  in  the  after¬ 
noon  to  make  close  connections.  During  the  remain¬ 
der  of  the  day  some  artillery  firing  occurred  and  con¬ 
tinuous  skirmishing,  but  there  was  no  real  battle  while 
I  was  bringing  my  troops  into  position. 

Thus  I  had  Logan  occupy  the  portion  of  the  front 
next  to  Slocum  and  Blair  deploy  his  division  on  the 
right,  farther  along.  In  this  way  we  embraced  the 
works  of  the  Confederates.  One  of  the  officers  of  my 
staff  visited  Slocum  himself  as  soon  as  we  were  in 

148 


The  Battle  of  Bentonville 


position.  He  asked  him  how  he  thought  the  battle 
of  the  day  before  had  ended.  Slocum  replied:  “  We 
whipped  them.” 

The  country  in  the  vicinity  of  this  battlefield  was 
of  such  a  nature  that  we  could  not  draw  artillery  over 
it.  It  seemed  to  be  dry  on  the  surface,  but  very  wa¬ 
tery  and  miry  just  below ;  so  that  the  battle  was  fought 
mostly  by  infantry. 

That  morning  of  March  21st,  bright  and  early,  I  was 
up  and  had  a  place  for  a  good  view  of  my  troops. 
Sherman’s  men  were  in  position  from  right  to  left  in 
the  following  order:  Seventeenth  Corps,  Fifteenth, 
Fourteenth,  and  Twentieth,  with  proper  reserves  cov¬ 
ering  each  flank.  Kilpatrick’s  cavalry  was  placed  at 
the  extreme  left.  On  our  right  our  movements  com¬ 
menced  by  a  reconnoissance  made  by  the  Seventeenth 
Corps — Mower  having  with  two  brigades  to  feel  for 
the  enemy’s  left  flank.  He  had  to  work  his  way 
through  a  swampy  area  covered  with  thick  underbrush 
and  wood.  In  his  eagerness  Mower  pushed  a  little 
too  far  to  the  north,  and  so  with  liis  two  brigades  be¬ 
came  detached  from  his  corps.  He  struck,  evidently, 
beyond  the  enemy’s  left  flank,  possibly  coming  upon 
the  rear  guard,  which  he  at  first  drove  before  him. 

The  Confederates,  seeing  what  was  upon  them,  im¬ 
mediately  organized  an  attack,  and  struck  Mower’s 
front  and  flanks.  He  was  forced  to  withdraw,  and 
Hampton  intimates  that  that  withdrawal  was  in  great 
haste,  in  fact,  a  complete  repulse.  Hampton  was 
right;  but  as  soon  as  I  knew  from  his  appeal  that 
Mower  was  driven  back,  I  ordered  Blair  to  support 
him  with  his  whole  corps,  if  necessary,  and  Logan  to 
advance  and  seize  the  skirmish  rifle  pits  all  along  his 
front. 


149 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

This  was  done,  but  just  as  Mower  under  a  hot 
fire  was  leading  a  connected  column  again  to  the 
same  Confederate  flank  or  rear,  Sherman  ordered 
him  back.  The  general  also  called  off  Blair’s  en¬ 
tire  command — an  order  that  by  some  accident  did 
not  get  to  me  at  all  till  I  met  Blair  and  began  call¬ 
ing  him  to  account  for  the  withdrawal  of  his  men. 
Blair  answered :  “  The  withdrawal  is  by  Sherman’s 
order !  ” 

Sherman  did  this  deliberately,  and  gave  his  rea¬ 
sons  for  it.  One  was  that  he  thought  that  Mower  had 
been  a  little  rash;  another,  that  he  thought  Johnston 
had  a  larger  command  than  he  really  did  have;  and 
another,  which  was  probably  the  governing  one  at 
that  time,  that  there  had  been  enough  bloodshed  al¬ 
ready,  and  that  Johnston  would  surely  retreat  north¬ 
ward  and  leave  us  to  go  and  complete  our  connec¬ 
tion  at  Goldsboro  and  establish  our  new  base  of 
supplies. 

None  of  these  reasons  satisfied  me  at  the  time,  but 
events  were  already  ripening  which  very  soon  made 
me  glad  that  this  last  battle  had  not  been  pushed  to 
an  extremitv. 

The  night  of  March  21st  Johnston  saw  his  line 
of  retreat  toward  the  north  still  open,  and,  having 
done  his  best,  he  could  reap  no  further  fruits  from  his 
enterprise,  so  he  carefully  withdrew. 

Sherman’s  table  of  losses  at  Bentonville  was : 


Officers. 

Men. 

Killed . 

.  11 

180 

Wounded . 

.  12 

1,105 

Missing . 

296 

Total . 

.  23 

1,581 

Aggregate  loss 


150 


1,604 


The  Battle  of  Bentonville 


Johnston’s  corresponding  statement  was: 


Date. 

On  the  19th . 

On  the  20th . 

On  the  21st . 

Killed. 

...  180 

6 

37 

Wounded. 

1,220 

90 

157 

Missing. 

515 

31 

107 

Total . 

...  223 

1,467 

653 

Aggregate  loss . 

.  .  2,343 

Sherman  gave  this  summary:  “  Wide  discrepan¬ 
cies  exist  in  these  figures.  For  instance,  Slocum  ac¬ 
counts  for  338  prisoners  captured,  and  Howard  for 
1,287,  making  1,625  in  all  to  Johnston’s  653,  a  differ¬ 
ence  of  872.  I  have  always  accorded  to  Johnston  due 
credit  for  boldness  in  his  attack  on  our  exposed  flank 
at  Bentonville,  but  I  think  that  he  understated  his 
strength,  and  doubt  at  the  time  whether  he  gave  ac¬ 
curate  returns  from  his  miscellaneous  army,  collected 
from  Hood,  Bragg,  Hardee,  Lee,  and  Hampton.  With 
this  knowledge  now  possessed  of  his  small  force,  of 
course  I  committed  an  error  in  not  overwhelming 
Johnston’s  army  on  March  21,  1865.” 

Hardee  is  presented  as  particularly  gallant  in  all 
of  the  later  charges  of  the  battle  of  Bentonville,  at  one 
time  leading  his  men  in  person  straight  over  one  of 
Slocum’s  barricades.  When  Hardee  was  comman¬ 
dant  of  cadets  at  West  Point,  I  was  one  of  the  officers 
associated  with  him  and  was  very  intimate  with  his 
family.  He  had  but  one  son,  and  in  my  spare  mo¬ 
ments,  at  the  request  of  his  father,  who  was  always  my 
personal  friend,  I  tutored  him  while  at  West  Point. 
Willie  was  scarcely  sixteen  when  he  joined  a  regiment 
of  Texas  cavalry  only  a  few  hours  before  the  battle 
of  Bentonville  commenced.  He  was  among  the  fore¬ 
most  and  during  one  of  the  charges  was  struck  and 

151 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

mortally  wounded.  General  S.  D.  Lee,  my  classmate, 
first  succeeded  in  getting  the  news  to  me. 

A  little  later  from  Raleigh  I  wrote  home:  “  Gen¬ 
eral  Hardee  stayed  here,  just  before  we  entered,  with 
his  wife  and  Miss  Anna,  his  daughter.  Miss  Anna 
wrote  me  this  morning  from  Hillsboro.  She  says  that 
Willie  was  mortally  wounded  at  the  battle  of  Benton- 
ville.  He  died  at  the  house  of  a  Mr.  Kirkland  in  Ra¬ 
leigh,  and  she  besought  me  for  protection  for  her 
Kirkland  friends,  recalling  old  times.” 

It  was  always  a  pleasure  to  me  to  do  anything  to 
soften  the  asperities  of  war,  so  that  I  was  glad  to  be 
asked  for  such  a  favor  which  I  readily  granted. 

On  our  part,  the  evening  of  March  21st,  we  had  re¬ 
pelled  many  fierce  charges  of  the  Confederates,  striv¬ 
ing  to  retake  their  skirmish  rifle  pits  which  we  had 
seized.  This  work  was  not  intermitted  until  dark. 
Our  cannon,  however,  continued  to  fire  its  projectiles 
from  time  to  time  during  the  whole  night,  lodging  them 
somewhere  in  Johnston’s  lines.  At  dawn,  finding  our 
front  clear  of  adversaries,  we  took  up  the  pursuit,  ran 
upon  their  rear  guard,  and  skirmished  with  it  for 
more  than  a  mile  along  the  Smithfield  road,  but  mean¬ 
while  every  Fnion  command  was  making  preparation 
to  continue  our  way  to  Goldsboro.  We  entered  that  city 
Friday,  March  24th,  having  spanned  the  distance  from 
Bentonville  in  two  marches.  Schofield  was  already 
there.  The  next  day  after  our  arrival  our  wagons 
that  had  been  previously  sent  to  Kinston  came  back 
with  supplies  of  food.  Sherman  reviewed  his  troops. 
As  my  two  corps  marched  past  him  our  men  were  evi¬ 
dently  in  the  best  of  health  and  full  of  vigor,  but  they 
were  actually  in  rags  and  almost  shoeless.  It  indi¬ 
cates  the  energy  of  our  supply  department  to  say  that 

152 


The  Battle  of  Bentonville 

within  ten  days  every  man  was  properly  refitted,  so 
that  my  wing,  at  least,  then  bore  the  appearance  of 
a  new  army. 

The  rest  at  Goldsboro  was  very  acceptable  to  the 
army  after  its  prolonged  labors,  perils,  and  privations. 
Our  cavalry  and  pickets  were  thrown  out  in  every  di¬ 
rection.  The  railroad  southward,  owing  to  the  energy 
of  the  railroad  department,  was  quickly  in  shape,  and 
brought  up  abundant  supplies.  We  remained  quiet 
for  eleven  days.  On  the  twelfth  day,  April  4th,  Sher¬ 
man,  who  had  gone  to  City  Point  and  had  his  inter¬ 
view  there  with  the  President,  the  general  in  chief  and 
others,  and  been  made  happy  by  abundant  personal 
congratulations,  had  already  returned  to  us  in  fine 
spirits.  The  next  day,  the  5th,  he  stirred  up  his  army 
commanders  and  the  chiefs  of  staff  departments  by  a 
confidential  order,  which  itself  showed  plainly  that  he 
and  Grant  had  put  their  heads  together  for  new  work. 

Monday,  April  10th,  was  designated  for  the  end  of 
the  preparation,  and  we  were  speedily  stripping  and 
preparing  for  a  new  base.  We  were  to  thrust  our¬ 
selves,  if  possible,  between  Joe  Johnston,  now  west 
of  the  Neuse,  and  General  Lee.  Our  new  base  was  to 
be  along  the  Chowan  River,  with  depots  at  such  places 
as  Winton  and  Murfreesboro,  N.  C.  Our  first  objec¬ 
tives  of  any  importance  were  Warrenton  and  Weldon, 
N.  C.,  with  a  view  to  the  prompt  crossing  of  the 
Roanoke. 

Sherman  carefully  laid  out  the  routes  for  each 
army,  the  left  wing,  substantially,  to  go  by  the  railway 
toward  Raleigh  to  Smithfield,  thence  to  the  crossing 
of  the  Neuse,  the  northern  branch,  and  thence  on  to 
Warrenton;  the  right  wing  for  a  time  along  the  Wel¬ 
don  road  as  far  as  Nahunta,  and  thence  leftward  to 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

Pearce’s  Mill,  and  so  northward  to  Warrenton.  Scho¬ 
field’s  army  was  to  take  a  central  route,  passing  by 
Whitley’s  Mill,  and  on  to  Rolesville,  and  thence  to 
Warrenton;  while  Kilpatrick’s  cavalry,  preceding  my 
column,  was  to  clear  the  way,  watch  the  right  flank, 
and  get  to  Weldon  as  soon  as  practicable. 

The  instant  we  had  passed  the  Roanoke  arrange¬ 
ments  were  made  with  supply  vessels  and  with  Ad¬ 
miral  Porter  of  the  navy,  to  change  our  depots  from 
New  Berne  and  Kinston  to  Winton  and  Murfreesboro. 
Sherman  promised  to  be  habitually  with  the  center  col¬ 
umn.  He  demanded  a  report  each  night  from  all  of  us 
as  to  “  whether  anything  material  had  occurred  dur¬ 
ing  the  day.” 

We  were  filled  with  animation,  and  hastily  putting 
things  to  rights,  when,  sometime  during  the  day  of 
April  6th,  news  reached  us  which  changed  the  whole 
programme.  The  news  was :  General  Robert  E.  Lee’s 
troops  of  North  Virginia  were  rushing  with  no  little 
disorder  for  Danville,  and  Grant’s  army  was  doing  its 
best  to  head  them  off.  It  was  evident  that  no  effort 
of  ours  could  now  prevent  a  junction  of  Lee  and  John¬ 
ston,  should  Lee  succeed  in  escaping  from  Grant;  so 
Sherman  at  once  changed  his  programme.  He  now 
ordered  a  general  movement  upon  Raleigh. 

April  12tli  from  his  headquarters  at  Smithfield 
which  Johnston  had  evacuated  before  we  came,  Sher¬ 
man  sent  us  these  cheering  words :  “  The  general  com¬ 
manding  announces  to  the  army  that  he  has  an  offi¬ 
cial  notice  from  General  Grant  that  General  Lee 
surrendered  to  him  his  entire  army  on  the  9th  inst.,  at 
Appomattox  Court  House,  Va.  Glory  to  God  and  our 
country,  and  all  honor  to  our  comrades  in  arms  toward 
whom  we  are  marching !  ” 


154 


The  Battle  of  Benton ville 


The  next  day,  the  13th,  gave  us  possession  of 
Raleigh,  and  our  general  in  chief  on  the  14th,  having 
his  troops  well  up,  for  they  all  marched  briskly,  issued 
a  new  set  of  orders. 

Sherman,  in  these,  located  Johnston  on  the  North 
Carolina  Railroad  at  what  was  called  “  Company 
Shops,”  near  the  crossing  of  the  Haw  River.  He  or¬ 
dered  a  movement  straight  to  Ashboro  which,  being 
southward  and  beyond,  would  turn  Johnston’s  position 
and  force  him  to  battle,  should  he  remain  where  he 
was.  Events  were  following  each  other  rapidly. 
That  day  Johnston  sent  in  a  flag  of  truce,  and  ad¬ 
dressed  to  Sherman  a  communication  which  spoke  of 
Lee’s  action  and  invited  a  suspension  of  operations. 
Sherman  instantly  replied  in  a  favorable  communica¬ 
tion,  intimating  that  he  had  power  to  make  such  ar¬ 
rangements  with  Johnston  as  Grant  had  made  with 
Lee. 

It  took  till  evening  of  the  16th  to  complete  the  pre¬ 
liminaries  for  the  interview  between  Sherman  and 
Johnston.  Early  April  17th,  Sherman,  with  the  offi¬ 
cers  who  were  to  accompany  him,  was  at  the  railroad 
station,  and  just  about  boarding  a  train  for  Durham 
Station,  when  the  telegraph  operator  ran  to  him  and 
asked  him  to  delay  starting,  for  he  was  receiving  a 
most  important  message,  one  coming  by  the  way  of 
Morehead  City.  It  was  in  cipher,  and  of  course  it 
took  some  little  time  to  translate. 

This  contained  the  fearful  news  of  the  assassi¬ 
nation  of  President  Lincoln  and  of  the  attempts,  so 
nearly  successful,  to  kill  Mr.  Seward  and  other  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  Cabinet.  Sherman  was  greatly  startled. 
Finding  that  no  one  but  the  operator  knew  the  purport 
of  the  message,  he  resolved  to  delay  its  announcement 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

to  tlie  army,  for  he  greatly  feared  the  immediate  re¬ 
sult  of  the  publication ;  so,  cautioning  the  operator  not 
to  give  it  out,  he  stepped  aboard  the  train  and  went 
to  fill  his  engagement. 

Sherman  and  Johnston  met  between  the  lines  at  the 
farmhouse  of  Mr.  Bennett.  Separating  from  their 
staffs,  the  two  generals  passed  into  a  side  room,  and  as 
soon  as  they  were  there  face  to  face,  Sherman  showed 
Johnston  the  telegraphic  message  from  Washington. 
The  effect  upon  Johnston  was  very  marked.  Sherman 
says:  “  The  perspiration  came  out  in  great  drops  on 
his  forehead,  and  he  did  not  attempt  to  hide  his  dis¬ 
tress.” 

The  interview  was  only  a  preliminary  one,  but  both 
officers  much  desired  to  enter  into  some  more  general 
arrangement  than  a  simple  capitulation.  Sherman 
explained  Grant’s  terms  and  what  he  believed  to  have 
been  Mr.  Lincoln’s  wishes,  gathered  from  his  late  in¬ 
terview,  with  regard  to  a  general  settlement  for  a  peace 
establishment.  Johnston  asked  for  time  to  communi¬ 
cate  with  those  whom  he  represented.  Here  ended 
the  first  interview,  and  the  parties  returned  to  their 
respective  commands.  Sherman  immediately  came 
back  to  Raleigh  where  I  had  remained  in  command. 

The  sad  news  was  first  given  by  him,  en  route,  to 
some  of  Kilpatrick’s  men  at  Durham  Station,  and  next 
to  the  Fifteenth  Corps  near  Morrisville  and  Jones’s 
Station,  then  to  me.  Promptly  after  reaching  his 
headquarters,  Sherman  published  the  news.  There 
is  one  clause  which  I  will  repeat:  “  Your  general  does 
not  wish  you  to  infer  that  this  (the  disposition  to  use 
the  assassin’s  tools)  is  universal,  for  he  knows  that  the 
great  mass  of  the  Confederate  army  would  scorn  to 
sanction  such  acts,  but  he  believes  it  to  be  the 

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The  Battle  of  Bentonville 

legitimate  consequence  of  rebellion  against  rightful 
authority.” 

The  effect  upon  our  soldiers  was  different  from 
what  had  been  anticipated,  for  their  sorrow  seemed 
to  overwhelm  them  for  a  time,  and  there  was  little 
thought  of  revenge.  The  instinctive  feeling  was  quite 
universal  that  the  war  was  substantially  over  and  that 
the  work  of  assassination  was  but  the  act  of  a  few 
madmen. 

The  next  day,  April  18th,  Sherman  took  with  him 
not  only  his  personal  staff,  but  Blair  and  myself.  He 
left  us  all  at  Durham  Station,  except  the  officers  whom 
he  took  the  day  before.  It  was  at  this  interview  that 
the  first  terms  were  drawn  up.  Speaking  of  the  paper 
that  contained  them,  Sherman  says:  “  I  wrote  it  my¬ 
self,  and  announced  it  as  the  best  I  could  do,  and  they 
(Johnston  and  his  advisers)  readily  assented.” 

These  were  explicit  and  general  terms  which  were 
signed  by  Sherman  and  Johnston  and  forwarded  for 
the  approval  or  disapproval  of  the  Executive.  The 
clause  which  recognized  the  State  Governments,  whose 
legitimacy  was  to  be  determined  by  the  Supreme 
Court,  together  with  the  other  paragraph,  which  de¬ 
fined  political  rights  and  franchises,  was  what  caused 
such  a  furor  of  opposition  from  Washington. 

The  whole  agreement  was  disapproved  by  Presi¬ 
dent  Johnson,  and  Grant  was  ordered  “  to  resume 
hostilities  at  the  earliest  moment  ” ;  and,  further,  Grant 
was  instructed  to  proceed  to  Sherman’s  headquar¬ 
ters  “  and  direct  opposition  against  the  enemy.” 

Grant  came.  His  visit  was  a  memorable  one.  His 
close  friendship  for  Sherman  prevented  anything  that 
might  have  been  unfavorable  to  a  speedy  peace,  and 
allayed  all  asperities;  but  he  could  not  remove  the 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

deep  chagrin  Sherman  felt,  not  that  his  terms  had 
been  disapproved,  for  that  was  discretionary  with  the 
President,  but  because  he  had  been  so  publicly  and 
cruelly  denounced  by  the  War  Department. 

Grant  sent  Sherman  again  to  meet  Johnston.  They 
met  April  26th  and  agreed  upon  a  new  set  of  terms 
putting  Johnston’s  army,  officers  and  men  upon  their 
parole  to  fight  no  more,  and  permitting  them  to  return 
to  their  homes.  As  soon  as  Sherman  came  back  to 
Raleigh,  Grant  read  the  memorandum  of  agreement 
carefully,  put  his  approval  upon  it,  and  leaving  us 
the  next  day,  took  the  same  to  Washington.  On  that 
day,  April  26th,  Halleck  sent  a  dispatch  to  the  Secre¬ 
tary  of  War,  showing  that  troops  had  been  sent  from 
the  Army  of  the  Potomac  into  Sherman’s  vicinity. 
This  singular  clause  occurs  concerning  a  suspension  of 
orders  for  the  advancement  of  the  Sixth  Corps,  made 
consequent  upon  Sherman’s  last  agreement:  “  I  have 
telegraphed  back  to  obey  no  orders  of  Sherman,  but 
to  push  forward  as  rapidly  as  possible.” 

Not  only  this,  but  Halleck  asked  the  War  Depart¬ 
ment  for  orders  to  General  James  H.  Wilson,  com¬ 
manding  cavalry,  and  then  hurrying  on  southward,  “  to 
obey  no  orders  from  Sherman !  ”  In  the  light  of  these 
dispatches,  it  is  no  wonder  that  Sherman,  having  three 
armies  at  his  disposal,  and  not  even  relieved  from 
duty,  felt  more  deeply  than  can  be  described  the  insult 
so  conveyed.  Sherman’s  own  words  as  to  the  state  of 
his  feelings  are  pertinent :  “  I  was  outraged  beyond 
measure,  and  was  resolved  to  resent  the  insult,  cost 
what  it  might !  ” 

On  the  morning  of  April  26th  I  wrote  a  letter  to  my 
home:  “  Sherman’s  terms  were  not  approved  at  Wash¬ 
ington.  I  go  with  him  to  meet  Johnston  to-day,  and 

158 


The  Battle  of  Bentonville 


expect  other  terms  will  be  arranged.  Grant  came  back 
with  Major  Hitchcock  (Sherman’s  messenger  to  Wash¬ 
ington),  was  present  at  my  review  of  the  Seven¬ 
teenth  Corps  day  before  yesterday,  and  yesterday 
he  visited  and  rode  among  the  camps  of  my  Fif¬ 
teenth  Corps.  The  men  received  him  with  great  en¬ 
thusiasm.  I  cannot  get  over  the  effects  of  the  death 
of  Mr.  Lincoln.  Even  the  people  here  believe  that 
they  have  passed  into  severer  hands,  and  have  a  sort 
of  appreciation  of  the  fact  that  they  have  lost  a  friend 
and  not  an  enemy.” 

April  29th  I  wrote  again  on  the  eve  of  our  depar¬ 
ture  from  Raleigh : 

I  am  just  starting  with  my  army  northward,  and  expect  to 
reach  Petersburg  by  the  12th  of  next  month.  Since  I  have 
been  here  in  Raleigh,  I  have  been  entertained  by  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
R.  S.  Tucker,  people  young  like  you  and  me.  I  have  been 
treated  with  marked  cordiality,  and  have  acquired  a  great 
friendship  for  them.  There  is  no  more  war!  I  am  deeply  sorry 
for  the  abuse  Sherman  is  getting  at  the  hands  of  the  press. 
He  meant  right,  and  the  reasons  for  offering  generous  terms  were 
not  rightly  set  forth  by  the  press.  How  easy  it  is  to  impute 
wrong  motives. 

We  spanned  the  distance  to  Richmond  in  nine  days,  making 
an  average  by  the  route  we  followed  through  Petersburg  from 
20  to  25  miles  a  day.  The  soldiers  generally  were  so  eager  to 
get  to  the  places  of  muster-out  in  order  to  return  to  their  homes 
that  they  did  not  complain  now  of  long  marches. 


159 


. 


' 


.  V'  | 


■ 


PART  III— RECONSTRUCTION 


COMMISSIONER  OF  THE  FREEDMEN’S  BUREAU 
FOUNDING  HOWARD  UNIVERSITY 


CHAPTER  XLVI 


NEGRO  CONDITIONS  DURING  THE  CIVIL  WAR 

"DEFORE  the  beginning  of  the  summer  of  1865  the 
Civil  War  had  been  brought  to  a  close.  The 
Union  volunteers  were  soon  thereafter  mustered  out  of 
the  military  service ;  and,  carrying  with  them  as  tokens 
of  honor  their  certificates  of  discharge,  proud  of  their 
achievements,  and  full  of  hope  for  a  happy  and  pros¬ 
perous  future,  they  joyfully  sought  their  widely  scat¬ 
tered  homes. 

The  Confederate  soldiers  who  had  confronted  them 
for  four  long  years,  from  Generals  Lee  and  Johnston 
to  the  humblest  privates  in  the  ranks,  were  treated 
with  delicacy  and  kindness  by  our  officers.  After  their 
surrender,  however  disappointed  they  might  be  at  the 
result  of  the  conflict,  they  were,  nevertheless,  not  with¬ 
out  spirit  and  hope.  So,  enjoying  an  American’s  con¬ 
fidence  in  his  ability  to  get  on  in  the  world  and  pro¬ 
tected  by  Grant’s  generous  parole,  they  returned  to 
their  Southern  households.  They  found  their  farms 
stripped,  their  plantations  overgrown  with  weeds, 
their  cotton  destroyed,  and  their  laborers  disbanded. 
Business  in  cities  and  villages  was  at  a  standstill,  and 
their  late  Confederate  currency  absolutely  without 
value.  The  prospect  at  the  best  was  dark.  Still, 
these  men  had  Anglo-Saxon  courage,  and  with  few  ex¬ 
ceptions  did  not  succumb  to  the  appalling  difficulties 
of  their  situation,  but  promptly  went  to  work  to  gain 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

a  living  for  themselves  and  for  those  who  were  depend¬ 
ent  on  them  for  support. 

These  ex-Confederate  soldiers  were,  however,  but 
a  small  part  of  the  entire  population  of  the  Southern 
States.  Four  millions  of  negro  slaves,  who  had  been 
hitherto  bound  to  labor  in  both  the  cotton  and  border 
States,  had  been  set  free :  First,  by  the  successive  oper¬ 
ations  of  the  great  war;  second,  by  the  proclamation 
of  the  President;  and  third,  indirectly,  from  the  effects 
of  statute  and  constitutional  law.  Generally  these 
millions  had  left  their  places  of  work  and  abode  and 
had  become  indeed  nomadic,  wandering  wherever  want 
drove  or  untutored  inclination  enticed  them.  They 
had  drifted  into  nooks  and  corners  like  debris  into 
sloughs  and  eddies;  and  were  very  soon  to  be  found 
in  varied,  ill-conditioned  masses,  all  the  way  from 
Maryland  to  Mexico,  and  from  the  Gulf  to  the  Ohio 
River.  An  awful  calamitous  breaking-up  of  a  thor¬ 
oughly  organized  society;  dark  desolation  lay  in  its 
wake. 

It  was  not  the  negroes  alone  who  were  so  thor¬ 
oughly  shaken  up  and  driven  hither  and  thither  by  the 
storms  of  war.  Those  named  in  the  South  the  “  poor 
whites,”  especially  of  the  mountain  regions  of  Georgia, 
Tennessee,  North  and  South  Carolina,  were  included. 
These  had  all  along  been  greatly  divided  in  their 
'allegiance — some  for  the  Union,  and  some  for  the  Con¬ 
federacy.  Family  and  neighborhood  feuds,  always 
indigenous  and  contagious  there,  naturally  took  on 
new  fire  during  the  war  and  its  resulting  conflicts,  so 
that  these  people  were  sooner  or  later  scattered  to  the 
four  winds.  To  these  two  classes,  negroes  and  whites, 
were  usually  given  the  names  of  freedmen  and 
refugees.  % 


164 


Negro  Conditions  During  the  Civil  War 

To  arrive  at  a  clearer  view  of  the  actual  condition 
of  Southern  neighborhoods,  hamlets,  villages,  and  cit¬ 
ies  during  and  at  the  close  of  our  internecine  strife, 
here  follow  a  few  brief  sketches  of  these  indigent 
classes  as  they  came  under  my  own  observation  during 
and  after  the  war. 

As  early  as  1861  there  were  several  significant  il¬ 
lustrations  of  the  approaching  problems.  For  example, 
after  the  first  battle  of  Bull  Run  my  headquarters  and 
staff  belongings  as  a  brigade  commander  were  at  a 
farmhouse,  three  miles  westward  from  Alexandria, 
V a.  One  day  a  woman,  tall,  straight,  healthful,  and 
active  presented  herself  at  the  picket  guard  bear¬ 
ing  on  her  arm  a  lad  of  some  two  years.  The  child 
had  a  darker  hue  than  the  mother,  and  his  kinky  hair, 
cut  short,  enveloped  his  round  head  with  its  woolly 
dress.  This  woman  and  child  were  brought  to  me  by 
the  officer  of  the  outpost.  Seeing  that  the  woman  was 
terrified,  I  endeavored  to  reassure  her  of  her  safety. 

“  What  do  you  wish?  ”  I  asked. 

“  Sir,  I’m  a  slave  woman,  and  this  here’s  my  child. 
Let  me  and  my  child  go  free !  ” 

While  I  was  listening  to  the  woman’s  plaint  and 
entreaty,  a  sallow-complexioned,  poorly  clad  white 
woman  of  middle  age  was  ushered  in.  Addressing  me 
in  a  shrill  voice  she  said  at  once : 

“  That  there  woman  is  my  slave.  I  have  always 
treated  her  well,  and  here  she  is.  She  has  run  off. 
Now,  sir,  you  must  send  her  hack  to  me,  for  she  is 
mine.  She  and  the  boy,  they’re  my  property.” 

It  will  be  remembered  that  at  first  the  Government 
proposed  to  itself  to  overcome  the  armies  in  rebellion, 
and  save  the  Union  as  it  was,  without  touching  slavery 
at  all.  This  course  appeared  to  be  necessary,  in  view 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

of  the  fact  that  the  border  States  were  in  their  major¬ 
ity  loyal  to  the  Union.  As  many  of  the  friends  of 
the  Union  in  those  States  had  slaves,  it  was  indeed 
difficult  to  deal  with  the  question  of  servitude.  Public 
opinion,  it  is  true,  was  changing  from  day  to  day,  but 
the  friends  of  freedom  were  obliged  to  wait  yet  many 
days  to  realize  much  of  what  they  had  been  so  long 
hoping,  praying,  and  striving  for. 

On  this  occasion,  commanding  an  outpost,  I  found 
myself  under  most  stringent  orders  not  to  harbor  any 
slave  property.  In  face  of  this  actuality  I  was  greatly 
puzzled  with  the  case  before  me.  The  white  woman, 
seeing  my  embarrassment,  became  more  and  more  ex¬ 
cited,  and  soon  began  to  use  abusive  language,  directed 
partially  to  me,  but  mainly  to  her  slave. 

The  woman  kept  pressing  her  child  to  her  breast 
and  with  her  large  eyes  filled  with  tears  continued  to 
look  toward  me,  repeating :  “  Oh !  my  child,  my  child !  ” 

At  last,  of  course,  I  was  obliged  to  decide  the  case. 
So  turning  to  the  impatient  white  woman,  I  said : 

“  There’s  your  property,  take  it !  ” 

She  promptly  answered:  “  But  I  can’t  take  it. 
She’s  stronger  than  I!  You  must  give  me  a  guard.” 

My  heart  rebelled  against  using  military  force  for 
such  a  purpose,  and  so  I  answered : 

“  No,  no,  I  will  not  give  you  a  guard.  I  will  never 
use  bayonets  to  drive  a  poor  girl  and  child  into 
bondage.” 

I  had  reluctantly  complied  with  the  letter  of  the 
law  and  fancied  that  to  be  enough.  Somehow  that 
night,  without  my  knowledge,  the  slave  woman  and  her 
child  found  their  way  eastward  to  Alexandria  and 
thence  to  Washington — thus  she  and  her  child  became 
free.  Two  citizens  from  Maine,  who  were  unqualified 

166 


Negro  Conditions  During  the  Civil  War 

abolitionists,  were  that  same  day  with  me  for  a  short 
time.  They  condemned  my  apparent  hesitancy  in 
strong  terms.  “  You  should  pay  no  attention  what¬ 
ever  to  such  uncalled-for  orders,”  they  said. 

After  that  I  was  hopeful  that  I  should  have  no 
more  slave  cases  to  deal  with.  But  soon  after  this, 
there  was  led  in  a  large,  dark  fellow,  with  the  thickest 
of  lips  and  the  broadest  of  noses,  whose  utterance  was 
hard  for  one  uninitiated  to  understand. 

“  How  did  yon  get  past  the  picket?  ”  I  asked. 

“  I  thorounded  nm,  thir.” 

He,  too,  found  the  Potomac  and  freedom.  A  man 
who  could  surround  a  picket  was  smart  enough  to 
reach  and  pass  Mason  and  Dixon’s  line. 

There  were  other  commanders  on  our  front  lines 
in  the  East  and  the  West  who  more  fully  carried  out 
their  instructions ;  so  that,  for  a  time,  hundreds  of  es¬ 
caping  slaves  who  had  come  in,  full  of  the  hope  of  free¬ 
dom,  were  caught  as  in  a  net  and  given  up  to  men  and 
women  who  visited  the  camps  and  laid  claim  to  them ; 
such  visitors  were  permitted  to  carry  their  servants 
back  to  bondage,  and  sometimes  soldiers  were  sent  to 
escort  the  fugitives  on  their  return. 

All  the  armies  of  the  Union  were  then  in  a  great 
ferment  on  this  subject.  General  H.  W.  Halleck,  in 
the  West,  prohibited  the  slaves  from  “  entering  the 
lines  of  any  camp  or  any  column  on  the  march.”  Gen¬ 
eral  Thomas  Williams  in  the  far  South  at  Baton  Bouge 
gave  equally  decisive  instructions;  but  on  the  other 
hand  General  John  C.  Fremont,  in  Missouri,  August 
31,  1861,  attempted  by  public  orders  to  confiscate  the 
property  of  all  citizens  in  rebellion  and  establish  the 
freedom  of  their  slaves. 

As  this  action  was  in  advance  of  President  and 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

Congress  on  both  subjects,  that  of  confiscation  and 
emancipation,  Mr.  Lincoln  was  obliged  to  modify  Fre¬ 
mont’s  premature  proclamation.  This  he  did  clearly 
and  cautiously  by  an  executive  order  prepared  and 
issued  by  himself. 

Again,  General  J.  W.  Phelps,  at  Ship  Island,  in  the 
winter  of  1861  and  1862  issued  an  emancipation  pro- 
nunciamento,  which  brought  upon  him  severe  news¬ 
paper  and  other  censure.  General  David  Hunter, 
later,  May  9,  1862,  from  Hilton  Head,  declared  in  or¬ 
ders  for  the  States  of  Georgia,  Florida,  and  South 
Carolina :  “  That  persons  heretofore  held  as  slaves  are 
therefore  declared  forever  free.” 

The  “  therefore  ”  was  based  on  what  appeared  to 
him  a  self-evident  proposition:  “  Slavery  and  martial 
law  in  a  free  country  were  altogether  incompatible.” 

After  Hunter’s  action,  President  Lincoln  again, 
with  evident  sorrow,  interfered,  declaring,  in  substance, 
that  whether  or  not  it  was  proper  for  the  Chief  Exec¬ 
utive  to  emancipate  slaves,  that  action  was  at  least 
reserved  to  himself,  an  action  “  which  he  could  not 
feel  justified  in  leaving  to  commanders  in  the  field.” 
Thus  General  Hunter  was  reprimanded.  Still,  by 
these  antislavery  officers  and  many  others  on  our  ex¬ 
tended  lines,  the  escaping  slaves  were  never  returned 
to  bondage,  and  when  within  our  lines  were  treated 
humanely. 

General  B.  F.  Butler’s  shrewd  experiments  at  Fort 
Monroe  and  Hampton  greatly  helped  the  whole  observ¬ 
ing  army.  A  Confederate  officer,  Colonel  Charles 
Mallory,  sent  an  agent  from  Norfolk  to  Butler  for  the 
purpose  of  recovering  three  escaped  slaves.  Butler 
refused  to  give  them  up.  In  the  interview,  May  23, 
1861,  he  said  to  the  agent: 

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Negro  Conditions  During  the  Civil  War 

“The  question  is  simply  whether  they  shall  be  used  for  or 
against  the  Government  of  the  United  States.  I  shall  hold 
these  negroes  as  contraband  of  war.” 

After  that  action  the  slaves  northward  bound  who 
crossed  our  lines,  were  denominated  “  contrabands.” 
They  were  in  many  places  organized  into  camps  and 
the  able-bodied  employed  in  army  work.  Our  armies, 
made  up  mostly  of  volunteers,  could  not  help  at  any 
time  being  participants,  more  or  less  pronounced,  in 
the  controversies  that  appeared  in  the  press  and  the 
country.  Some  proslavery  officers  on  various  occa¬ 
sions  denounced  Mr.  Lincoln,  applying  to  him  all  sorts 
of  epithets  as,  “  mountebank,”  “  old  ape,”  and  “  a 
consummate  tyrant.” 

Extreme  abolitionists  also  impugned  his  conduct 
with  equal  violence  on  account  o’f  his  apparent  hesi¬ 
tation  and  slowness.  While  General  Geo.  B.  McClel¬ 
lan  annoyed  him  by  public  promises  “  to  suppress  all 
servile  insurrection  by  force,”  and  General  Don  Carlos 
Buel,  in  Kentucky,  continued  to  allow  slave  holders  to 
come  within  his  lines  and  recover  their  property,  and 
General  Halleck,  in  Missouri,  forbade  slaves  to  enter 
the  lines;  other  commanders,  especially  in  the  West, 
grew  wiser,  and  before  long  maintained  a  sounder  war 
doctrine,  viz. ;  “  God  means  us  to  free  all  the  slaves. 
We  will  not  succeed  in  putting  down  the  rebellion  till 
we  set  every  slave  free.”  It  was  not  a  brazen  attempt 
to  interpret  the  divine  will,  but,  somehow,  a  settled 
conviction  of  such  men’s  souls. 

Touching  slaves  and  slave  property,  before  long 
the  Eastern,  the  Middle  and  the  Western  armies  with 
little  reasoning  or  open  discussion  caught  the  fire  of 
vigorous  and  unsparing  war  measures.  True,  under 

169 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

sucli  orders,  some  slaves  for  a  while  were  refettered 
after  they  had  come  within  the  Union  lines,  but  in  time 
press  and  people,  officers  and  soldiers,  with  meager 
exceptions  were  united  and  with  one  voice  said :  “  The 
slaves  of  men  in  arms  against  the  Government  shall 
be  forever  free.” 

General  Butler  in  a  letter  to  Simon  Cameron,  then 
Secretary  of  War,  dated  July  20,  1861,  showed  that  he 
was  in  the  advance.  In  this  letter  he  afforded  glimpses 
into  camps  and  workshops  where  the  implements 
of  emancipation  were  being  forged.  These  glimpses, 
next  to  those  of  the  premature  bivouac  of  John  Brown, 
were  the  most  fruitful  sources  yet  put  forth  of  agita¬ 
tion  north  and  south,  and  later  became  the  cause  of 
remedial  legislation. 

It  appears  that  several  regiments,  by  a  sudden  call 
of  service,  were  taken  away  from  Butler’s  command. 
In  consequence,  the  general’s  outlying  troops  had  to 
be  called  in  toward  Fort  Monroe,  and  the  village  of 
Hampton  abandoned.  With  evident  feeling  he  wrote 
that  in  that  village  there  were  large  numbers  of  ne¬ 
groes,  composed  in  a  great  measure  of  men,  women,  and 
children  who  had  fled  within  his  lines  for  protection; 
they  had  escaped  from  marauding  parties  of  Confeder¬ 
ates  who  had  been  gathering  up  able-bodied  blacks  to 
aid  them  in  constructing  their  batteries.  He  had  em¬ 
ployed  the  men  in  Hampton  in  throwing  up  intrench- 
ments,  and  they  were  working  zealously  and  efficiently 
at  that  duty,  saving  his  soldiers  from  that  labor  under 
the  midday  sun.  The  women  were  earning  substan¬ 
tially  their  own  subsistence  in  washing,  marketing, 
and  taking  care  of  the  clothes  of  the  soldiers;  and 
rations  for  the  support  of  the  children  were  being 
served  out  to  the  men  who  worked.  But  bv  the  evacu- 

170 


Negro  Conditions  During  the  Civil  War 

ation  of  Hampton  all  these  black  people  were  obliged 
to  breakup  their  homes  and  flee  across  the  creek  within 
his  new  lines  for  safety  and  support.  He  described 
it  as  a  most  distressing  sight  to  see  these  poor  crea¬ 
tures  who  had  trusted  to  the  arms  of  the  United  States, 
and  who  had  aided  the  troops,  thus  obliged  to  flee 
from  their  houses,  and  the  homes  of  their  masters 
who  had  early  deserted  them.  They  had  become  fu¬ 
gitives  from  fear  of  the  return  of  the  Confederate 
soldiery  who  had  threatened  to  shoot  the  men  who  had 
wrought  for  us,  and  to  carry  off  the  women  again  into 
bondage. 

General  Butler  further  argues :  “  When  I  adopted 
the  theory  of  treating  the  able-bodied  negro,  fit  to 
work  in  the  trenches,  as  property  liable  to  he  used  in 
the  aid  of  the  rebellion  and  so  contraband  of  war,  that 
condition  of  things  was  so  far  met,  as  I  then  believed 
and  still  believe,  on  a  legal  and  constitutional  basis. 
But  now,  several  new  questions  arise.  Passing  by 
women,  the  children  certainly  cannot  he  treated  on 
that  basis;  if  property  they  must  he  considered  the 
incumbrance  rather  than  the  auxiliary  of  an  army, 
and  of  course  in  no  possible  legal  relation  could  be 
treated  as  contraband.  Are  they  property?  If  they 
were  so  they  have  been  left  by  their  masters  and 
owners,  deserted,  thrown  away,  abandoned  like  the 
wrecked  vessel  upon  the  ocean.”  He  draws  this  con¬ 
clusion:  “  I  confess  that  my  own  mind  is  compelled 
by  this  reasoning  to  look  upon  them  as  men  and 
women.  My  duty  as  a  humane  man  is  very  plain.  I 
should  take  the  same  care  of  these  men,  women,  and 
children — houseless,  homeless,  and  unprovided  for — as 
I  would  for  the  same  number  of  men,  women,  and  chil¬ 
dren,  who,  for  their  attachment  to  the  Union,  have 

171 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

been  driven  or  allowed  to  flee  from  the  Confederate 
States.” 

Butler  would  have  had  no  doubt  on  this  question 
had  he  not  seen  an  order  issued  by  General  Irvin  Mc¬ 
Dowell  substantially  forbidding  all  fugitive  slaves 
from  coming  within  his  lines  or  being  harbored  there. 
If  left  to  his  own  discretion  he  would  have  taken  a 
widely  different  course  from  that  which  McDowell’s 
order  indicated.  In  a  loyal  State  he  would  put  down 
a  servile  insurrection.  In  a  State  in  rebellion  he  would 
confiscate  that  which  was  used  to  oppose  our  arms, 
and  take  all  that  property  which  constituted  the  wealth 
of  that  State,  and  furnished  the  means  by  which  the 
war  was  prosecuted,  besides  being  the  cause  of  the 
war;  and  if,  in  so  doing,  it  should  be  objected  that 
human  beings  were  brought  to  the  free  enjoyment  of 
life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness,  such  ob¬ 
jection  would  not  require  much  consideration. 

Our  President  and  Congress  diligently  studied  all 
the  phenomena,  noticed  the  gradual  clearing  of  the 
skies,  and  in  some  fitting  manner,  by  proclamations 
and  by  timely  acts  of  legislation,  helped  to  drive  away 
the  remaining  mists  from  men’s  minds  and  hearts. 

An  Act  of  Congress,  approved  March  13,  1862, 
created  a  new  Article  of  War.  It  prohibited  all  per¬ 
sons  in  the  military  service  from  employing  the  forces 
under  their  command  to  return  slaves  to  claiming  own¬ 
ers  and  provided  trial  by  court-martial  and  the  pen¬ 
alty  of  dismissal  for  its  violation.  This  was  a  legal 
step  that  the  friends  of  freedom  hailed  with  no  little 
satisfaction. 

Thus  legislation  after  a  germinating  period  had 
emphasized  and  enforced  the  better  view,  and  all  com¬ 
manders  had  been  gradually  brought  to  treat  as  freed- 

172 


Negro  Conditions  During  the  Civil  War 

men  the  escaping  slaves.  But  from  tlie  beginning 
there  continued  to  exist  a  chaotic  condition  of  society 
where  the  masters  and  their  immediate  families  were 
escaping  in  one  direction  and  the  great  bulk  of  their 
slaves  in  another. 

As  the  war  further  progressed  the  number  of  fu¬ 
gitives  continually  increased  till  all  the  woes  of  desti¬ 
tution  and  confusion  came  on  like  a  great  freshet,  the 
springs  and  rivulets  were  full  and  swift,  the  rivers 
high  and  angry  with  overflows,  and  the  gulfs  and  bays 
into  which  they  entered,  though  more  quiet,  were 
deeply  moved,  casting  up  mire  and  dirt  from  the 
very  bottom.  The  surging  masses  of  poverty-stricken 
people  flowed  into  the  larger  cities,  and  idleness  and 
viciousness  infected  them.  All  the  border  States  were 
in  great  trouble  because  slave  property  was  becom¬ 
ing  of  little  value  anywhere.  Border  loyalty  became 
shaken  when  thousands  of  dollars’  worth  of  human 
chattels  disappeared  in  a  night.  For  a  time,  as  we 
have  seen,  a  few  commanders  had  returned  their  slaves 
to  loyal  owners.  Early  in  1862  an  officer  operating 
in  Missouri,  commanding  an  Iowa  regiment,  brought 
to  his  camp  several  fugitives  through  whom  he  had 
obtained  valuable  information.  He  asked  for  their 
freedom.  But  the  owner  came  for  them.  The  Iowa 
officer  denied  him  and  allowed  the  slaves  to  escape. 
In  consequence  the  department  commander,  General 
Halleck,  sent  a  detachment  in  pursuit  of  the  negroes. 
They  were  overtaken;  one  of  them  was  shot  and  the 
others  returned  to  the  owner;  at  the  same  time  the 
Iowa  officer  was  placed  under  arrest. 

This  sharp  action  caused  the  matter  to  be  speedily 
brought  to  Congress.  In  the  midst  of  the  discussion 
which  followed  the  introduction  of  a  Bill  of  Relief  into 

173 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

Congress,  in  itself  the  excitant  of  advancing  thought, 
many  a  representative  made  a  record  which  to-day 
seems  incredible.  For  example,  one  member  said: 
“  Must  the  Northern  fanatics  be  sated  with  negroes, 
taxes,  and  blood,  with  division  North,  devastation 
South,  and  peril  to  constitutional  liberty  everywhere, 
before  relief  shall  come?  They  will  not  halt  until 
their  darling  schemes  are  consummated.” 

Another,  more  proslavery  still,  cried  out  in  de¬ 
spair  :  “  Sir,  pass  these  acts,  confiscate  under  these 
bills  the  property  of  these  men,  emancipate  their  ne¬ 
groes,  place  arms  in  the  hands  of  these  human  gorillas 
to  murder  their  masters  and  violate  their  wives  and 
daughters,  and  you  will  have  a  war  such  as  was  never 
witnessed  in  the  worst  days  of  the  French  Revolution, 
and  horrors  never  exceeded  in  San  Domingo,  for  the 
balance  of  the  century,  at  least.” 

These  dreadful  prophecies  were  never  fulfilled. 
The  famous  Confiscation  Act  was  approved  July  17, 
1862.  Besides  provision  for  the  emancipation  of 
slaves  and  confiscation  of  other  property  in  any  dis¬ 
trict  in  insurrection,  the  President,  at  his  discretion, 
was  authorized  to  use  negroes  in  such  manner  as  he 
should  judge  best  for  the  public  welfare  in  the  sup¬ 
pression  of  the  rebellion.  Under  this  legislation 
numerous  colonies  were  organized  along  the  southern 
coast. 

When  the  extreme  destitution  of  the  negroes  at 
Hampton,  Va.,  and  vicinity  became  known  in  the 
North,  Lewis  Tappan,  Esq.,  Treasurer  of  the  American 
Missionary  Association,  wrote  August  3,  1861,  to  Gen¬ 
eral  Butler  suggesting  the  removal  of  the  destitute 
negroes  to  the  North.  The  general  replied  to  him, 
August  10th,  that  it  was  better  for  them  to  remain 

174 


Negro  Conditions  During  the  Civil  War 

South,  hut  that  the  help  of  his  Association  would  be 
most  welcome.  Obeying  his  call,  the  Rev.  L.  C.  Lock- 
wood  was  sent.  He  reached  Fort  Monroe  September 
3d  and  immediately  called  on  General  John  E.  Wool, 
who  had,  August  7th,  superseded  General  Butler  as 
department  commander.  In  the  evening,  while  con¬ 
versing  on  the  piazza  of  the  hotel,  he  heard  music,  and 
following  the  sound  found  a  number  of  colored  people 
assembled  for  prayer.  They  hailed  his  coming  as  an 
answer  to  their  prayers  and  an  assurance  that  the 
good  Lord  had  opened  His  arms  to  bless  them. 

The  first  Association  day  school  was  opened  by  this 
agent  September  17th.  It  was  held  in  a  small  house 
near  the  female  seminary  building,  which,  after  the 
war,  became  the  Hampton  Home  for  Volunteer  Sol¬ 
diers.  The  first  teacher  was  Mrs.  Mary  S.  Peak,  a 
well-educated  free  woman  of  color. 

With  a  view  to  bettering  the  condition  of  these 
people,  after  a  careful  investigation  by  a  commission 
of  which  Colonel  LeGrand  B.  Cannon  was  a  member, 
and  by  whose  personal  efforts  the  approval  of  the  Sec¬ 
retary  of  War  was  obtained,  General  Wool  issued 
a  general  order,  March  18,  1862,  appointing  Mr. 
Charles  B.  Wilder  Superintendent  of  Negroes,  and 
providing  that  all  wages  earned  by  persons  of  Afri¬ 
can  blood  be  paid  to  the  laborers  themselves  for  their 
own  use  and  support  under  such  regulations  as  should 
be  devised  by  the  superintendent.  This  was  an  ad¬ 
vance  from  the  contraband,  fed,  clothed,  and  housed 
for  his  labor,  to  the  free  wage-earner. 

February  8,  1862,  in  North  Carolina  the  battle  of 
Roanoke  Island  was  fought;  immediately  after  it 
crowds  of  fugitives,  most  of  them  poor  and  ignorant 
negroes,  poured  into  camp.  Very  soon  a  prominent 

175 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

member  of  tlie  Christian  Commission,  Vincent  Col- 
yer,  Esq.,  of  New  York  was  set  at  work  to  care  for 
these  fugitives.  He  was  designated  in  orders  as 
Superintendent  of  the  Poor. 

In  the  ensuing  March  after  New  Berne  had  been 
captured,  Colyer  exercised  the  same  functions  there. 
The  following  was  his  method:  He  took  a  house  for 
himself  and  his  helpers  and  made  it  the  center  and 
store  of  active  benevolence  for  his  beneficiaries.  For 
the  able-bodied  he  secured  employment  as  carpenters, 
blacksmiths,  longshoremen,  and  laborers  on  military 
works.  Officers  in  command  also  received  some  ne¬ 
groes  from  him  and  used  them  as  scouts,  a  few  chosen 
fugitives  being  dispatched  to  go  beyond  the  lines  and 
return  with  information. 

Evening  schools  were  here  opened  for  the  freed- 
men.  At  New  Berne  alone  nearly  a  thousand  joyfully 
accepted  the  privilege  of  attending,  while  willing  sol¬ 
diers  in  most  cases  became  their  instructors.  The 
eagerness  of  the  negro  men,  women,  and  children  for 
knowledge  of  books  was  a  remarkable  fact,  here 
emphasized. 

Later  Chaplain  Horace  James  of  the  Twenty-fifth 
Massachusetts  Volunteers  became  Superintendent  of 
Negro  Affairs  for  North  Carolina,  and  other  officers 
were  detailed  to  assist  him.  These  covered  the  ter¬ 
ritory  gradually  opened  by  the  advance  of  our  armies 
in  both  Virginia  and  North  Carolina.  Becoming  a 
quartermaster  with  the  rank  of  captain  in  1864,  he, 
for  upward  of  two  years,  superintended  the  poor, 
both  white  and  black  in  that  region.  He  grouped  the 
fugitives  in  small  villages,  and  diligently  attended  to 
their  industries  and  to  their  schools.  Enlisted  men 
were  his  first  teachers ;  then  followed  the  best  of  lady 

176 


Mrs.  Eliza  Otis  Gilmore,  Mother  of  General  Howard, 

and  Granddaughter. 


Negro  Conditions  During  the  Civil  War 

teachers  from  the  North  and  success  crowned  his 
efforts. 

In  February,  1864,  while  there  were  about  two  thou¬ 
sand  freed  people  in  the  villages  outside  of  the  New 
Berne,  North  Carolina,  intrenchments,  an  enterprising 
Confederal  general,  George  E.  Pickett,  with  a  division 
of  troops,  attempted  to  retake  that  city.  Concerning 
his  approach  an  eyewitness  wrote  that  every  man, 
woman,  and  child  from  these  negro  camps  came  rush¬ 
ing  wildly  into  town,  and  felt  as  keen  a  sense  of  dan¬ 
ger  as  if  they  had  been  actually  returned  by  force  to 
their  old  masters.  Negroes,  to  the  number  of  nine 
hundred,  were  then  put  into  the  trenches  with  the 
white  soldiers,  and  were  highly  complimented  for  their 
uniformly  brave  conduct  during  the  assault.  The  at¬ 
tempt  of  General  Pickett  failed,  and  the  negro  de¬ 
fenders  received  a  due  proportion  of  credit  for  the  re¬ 
pulse.  After  this  the  several  negro  settlements,  for 
safety,  had  to  be  consolidated  within  the  fortified 
lines.  Lots  were  now  assigned  and  about  eight  hun¬ 
dred  houses  erected,  which  at  one  time  sheltered  some 
three  thousand  escaped  slaves. 

Though  such  a  village  was  not  productive  of  the 
best  fruits  in  all  respects,  yet  even  there  under  the 
thorough  system  of  police  instituted  and  the  daily  drill 
of  the  men,  the  schools  taught  by  excellent  teachers 
steadily  increased  in  numbers  and  the  freed  people 
improved  rapidly  in  intelligence,  in  cleanliness,  and 
order.  It  was  altogether  a  new  life  to  the  late  slaves. 

The  capture  by  our  navy  of  the  forts  at  its  mouth, 
November  7,  1861,  had  brought  into  our  possession 
Port  Royal  Harbor,  S.  C.  Such  cotton  as  was  found 
on  the  islands  tributary  to  this  region  was  at  once 
taken  possession  of  by  treasury  agents. 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

June  28,  1862,  Brigadier  General  Rufus  Saxton, 
with  headquarters  at  Beaufort,  South  Carolina,  as¬ 
sumed  the  government  and  control  of  all  places  and 
persons  in  the  Department  of  the  South  which  were 
not  embraced  in  the  operations  of  General  Quincy  A. 
Gillmore,  commanding  the  department.  General  Sax¬ 
ton,  as  military  governor,  appointed  three  division 
superintendents,  each  having  charge  of  several  of  the 
Sea  Islands.  Market  houses  were  established  at  Hil¬ 
ton  Head  and  Beaufort  for  the  sale  of  the  produce 
from  the  plantations,  and  negroes  put  to  work,  the 
larger  settlements  being  on  Port  Royal  Island  and 
near  the  town  of  Beaufort. 

Colored  men  in  that  vicinity  were  soon  enlisted  as 
soldiers  and  an  effort  was  made  to  cause  the  laborers 
left  on  each  plantation,  under  plantation  superintend¬ 
ents  appointed  for  the  purpose,  to  raise  sufficient  cot¬ 
ton  and  corn  for  their  own  support,  rations  being 
given  from  the  Commissary  Department  only  when 
necessary  to  prevent  absolute  starvation.  These  con¬ 
ditions  with  hardly  an  interruption  continued  until 
the  spring  of  1865. 

Grant’s  army  in  the  West  occupied  Grand  Junc¬ 
tion,  Miss.,  by  November,  1862.  The  usual  irregular 
host  of  slaves  then  swarmed  in  from  the  surrounding 
country.  They  begged  for  protection  against  recap¬ 
ture,  and  they,  of  course,  needed  food,  clothing,  and 
shelter.  They  could  not  now  be  reenslaved  through 
army  aid,  yet  no  provision  had  been  made  by  anybody 
for  their  sustenance.  A  few  were  employed  as  team¬ 
sters,  servants,  cooks,  and  pioneers.  Yet  it  seemed  as 
if  the  vast  majority  must  be  left  to  freeze  and  starve; 
for  when  the  storms  came  with  the  winter  months  the 
weather  was  of  great  severity. 

178 


Negro  Conditions  During  the  Civil  War 

General  Grant,  with  his  usual  gentleness  toward 
the  needy  and  his  fertility  in  expedients,  introduced 
at  once  a  plan  of  relief.  He  selected  a  fitting  super¬ 
intendent,  John  Eaton,  Chaplain  of  the  Twenty-sev¬ 
enth  Ohio  Volunteers,  who  soon  was  promoted  to  the 
colonelcy  of  a  colored  regiment,  and  later  for  many 
years  was  Commissioner  of  the  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Edu¬ 
cation.  He  was  then  constituted  Chief  of  Negro  Af¬ 
fairs  for  the  entire  district  under  Grant’s  jurisdiction. 
The  plan  which  Grant  conceived  the  new  superintend¬ 
ent  ably  carried  out.  There  were  all  around  Grand 
Junction,  when  our  operations  opened,  large  crops  of 
cotton  and  corn  ungathered.  It  was  determined  to 
harvest  these,  send  them  North  for  sale,  and  place 
the  receipts  to  the  credit  of  the  Government.  The 
army  of  fugitives,  willingly  going  to  work,  produced 
a  lively  scene.  The  children  lent  a  hand  in  gathering 
the  corn  and  the  cotton.  The  superintendent,  confer¬ 
ring  with  the  general  himself,  fixed  upon  fair  wages 
for  this  industry.  Under  similar  remuneration  wood¬ 
cutters  were  set  at  work  to  supply  with  fuel  numerous 
Government  steamers  on  the  river.  After  inspection 
of  accounts,  the  money  was  paid  for  the  labor  by  the 
quartermaster,  but  never  directly  to  the  fugitives. 
The  superintendent,  controlling  this  money,  saw  to  it 
first  that  the  men,  women,  and  children  should  have 
sufficient  clothing  and  food;  then  Colonel  Eaton  built 
for  them  rough  cabins  and  provided  for  their  sick  and 
aged,  managing  to  extend  to  them  many  unexpected 
comforts.  General  Grant  in  his  memoirs  suggests 
this  as  the  first  idea  of  a  “  Freedmen’s  Bureau.”  It 
was,  doubtless,  a  harbinger  of  that  larger  institution 
which  Congress  subsequently  provided  for  the  wants 
of  the  millions  of  the  emancipated,  but  it  was  not  the 

179 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

first  inception.  There  were  other  groups  of  fugi¬ 
tives  quite  as  large  and  similarly  cared  for  in  the 
East  and  South;  yet  Grant’s  enterprise  afforded  an 
object  lesson  and  had  a  sensible  completeness  from 
the  start. 

While  in  camp  on  the  Rappahannock  at  Falmouth, 
Va.,  I  well  remember  the  unusual  excitement  in  our 
army  upon  the  receipt  of  the  remarkable  preliminary 
proclamation  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  promulgated  September 
22,  1862.  It  was  like  Elisha’s  call  on  Mt.  Carmel: 
“  Choose  ye  this  day  whom  ye  will  serve !  ”  Officers 
and  men  did  choose.  The  pregnant  phrases  of  that 
proclamation  have  a  voice  which  still  resounds  pleas¬ 
antly  in  loyal  ears:  “  That  on  the  first  day  of  Jan¬ 
uary,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  one  thousand  eight  hun¬ 
dred  and  .sixty- three,  all  persons  held  as  slaves  within 
any  State  or  designated  part  of  a  State,  the  people 
whereof  shall  be  in  rebellion  against  the  United  States, 
shall  be  then,  thenceforward  and  forever  free.”  This 
proclamation  republished  the  new  law  which  forbade 
the  return  of  slaves  and  also  the  Confiscation  Act,  in¬ 
tended  to  punish  treason  and  rebellion  by  the  seizure 
of  property  and  the  freeing  of  slaves. 

We  were  also  further  apprised  at  the  same  time 
of  an  additional  step  that  Mr.  Lincoln  would  soon  take 
— a  step  which  made  all  men  who  were  hostile  to  his 
administration  very  angry.  It  was  the  formal  avowal 
of  his  purpose,  in  his  next  message,  to  suggest  to  Con¬ 
gress  what  he  believed  to  be  an  equitable  method  of 
the  gradual  abolishment  of  slavery  altogether,  not 
only  in  the  States  in  insurrection,  but  in  the  border 
States  which  the  friends  of  secession  had  failed  to 
carry  out  of  the  Union,  and  among  many  people  who 
had  thus  far  cordially  maintained  our  cause.  How 

180 


Negro  Conditions  During  the  Civil  War 

this  action  of  the  President  affected  the  pro  slavery 
element  in  that  portion  of  the  army  with  which  I 
was  connected  may  be  illustrated  by  one  or  two  oc¬ 
currences. 

During  a  temporary  absence  of  General  Darius  N. 
Couch,  I  was  commanding  the  Second  Corps  near 
Falmouth,  Va.  More  incautious  than  scores  of  others, 
a  young  officer  of  that  corps  was  one  day  loudly 
talking  to  his  comrades  against  General  Ambrose  E. 
Burnside,  then  commanding  the  Army  of  the  Potomac, 
and  also  against  the  President.  The  officer  declared 
that  he  would  never  fight  in  company  with  accursed 
abolitionists.  He  was  surrounded  by  other  commis¬ 
sioned  officers,  including  the  surgeon  and  chaplain  of 
his  regiment,  and  his  soldiers  were  within  hearing. 
Two  or  three  prominent  civilians  on  a  visit  to  the  army 
chanced  to  hear  his  pronounced  offensive  words,  and 
noticed  the  growing  excitement  in  that  neighborhood. 
Coming  straight  to  me,  these  gentlemen  reported  the 
case  and  deplored  the  condition  of  the  army  which  they 
judged  to  be  bad  enough  from  this  and  other  incidents 
which  had  come  under  their  observation.  The  charge 
of  uttering  disloyal  language  was  preferred  and  wit¬ 
nesses  summoned.  The  offending  officer  was  promptly 
tried  and  sentenced  to  dismissal.  For  years  after¬ 
wards  he  sought  in  vain  to  procure  a  reversal  of  that 
sentence. 

In  another  regiment  of  that  same  corps  for  tender¬ 
ing  his  resignation  in  face  of  the  enemy  for  the  alleged 
reason  that  this  had  become  an  abolition  war,  a  lieu¬ 
tenant  was  similarly  tried  and  cashiered.  For  this 
prompt  enforcement  of  discipline  I  was  commended 
by  Mr.  Stanton. 

All  outward  demonstrations  were  thus  nipped  in 

181 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

the  bud,  so  that  while  other  officers  in  the  command 
ground  their  teeth  in  vexation  they  wisely  refrained 
from  insubordination  and  mutinous  expressions. 

Among  our  enlisted  men  there  were  not  a  few  who 
at  one  time  held  views  similar  to  the  New  York  riot¬ 
ers  of  1863.  They  hated  a  negro  except  as  a  slave, 
and  they  kept  alive  in  their  circle  of  influence  an  under¬ 
current  of  malice  more  or  less  active. 

Close  by  my  headquarters  the  First  Minnesota 
Regiment  of  volunteers  was  stationed  near  a  cluster 
of  trees  not  far  from  the  Rappahannock.  Its  field 
officers  rejoiced  in  the  possession  of  a  number  of  good 
horses.  Among  the  refugees  were  several  negro  lads 
who  were  employed  to  care  for  the  horses,  grooming 
them,  and  riding  daily  to  water  and  back  to  camp. 
Among  these  was  a  mulatto  of  some  eighteen  years, 
of  handsome  figure,  pleasant  face  and  manners,  and 
rather  well  dressed  for  the  field.  He  appeared  a  little 
proud,  especially  when  mounted  on  his  employer’s 
horse.  One  day,  as  he  was  riding  as  usual,  a  small 
group  of  soldiers  were  heard  cursing  him.  One  of 
them  said  distinctly  that  he  should  never  ride  and  have 
the  speaker  walk  as  long  as  there  was  good  stuff  in 
his  rifle.  Little  was  thought  of  the  man’s  threat  at 
the  time,  but  soon  after,  as  the  lad  was  passing  the 
same  point,  sitting  erect  on  his  blanketed  horse,  a  shot 
was  fired,  coming  apparently  from  a  group  of  soldiers 
to  his  left  and  not  far  from  him.  The  lad  was  desper¬ 
ately  wounded  in  the  shoulder  and  would  have  fallen 
to  the  ground  except  for  the  help  of  a  friendly  neigh¬ 
bor.  The  Minnesota  men  carried  him  carefully  to  the 
hospital,  where  he  was  kindly  treated.  Several  officers 
of  the  army  visited  him.  No  harsh  word  ever  fell 
from  his  lips.  He  lingered  a  few  days,  and  with  ex- 

182 


Negro  Conditions  During  the  Civil  War 

pressions  of  forgiveness  on  his  tongue  and  hope  in  his 
face  the  lad  died.  The  murderer  could  not  be  found. 
His  comrades  covered  him  and  his  crime.  The  death 
of  this  colored  youth  made  a  deep  impression  in  onr 
camp.  Evidently  on  account  of  his  color  he  was  slain. 
Friendly  voices  murmured  against  the  crime,  and  with 
set  teeth  echoed  the  settled  thought:  “  Slavery  must 
go.” 

On  January  1,  1863,  Mr.  Lincoln’s  promised  proc¬ 
lamation  was  issued.  It  exceeded  the  preliminary  one 
in  intrinsic  force  and  immediate  positive  effect. 

On  the  coast  of  South  Carolina  our  officers,  under 
the  Confiscation  Act,  had  already  enrolled  large  num¬ 
bers  of  able-bodied  fugitives  as  soldiers.  Near  one 
encampment  were  standing,  scattered  here  and  there, 
immense  live  oaks.  Their  lateral  branches  often  cov¬ 
ered  a  circuit  of  from  seventy-five  to  a  hundred  feet, 
and  innumerable  birds  lived  and  sang  among  the  rest¬ 
less  leaves.  Not  far  from  Beaufort  under  the  shade  of 
these  magnificent  trees  the  first  tidings  of  the  grand 
proclamation  were  read  to  a  regiment  of  negroes. 
Their  joy  and  enthusiasm  were  unbounded. 

Even  before  the  close  of  1862  many  thousands  of 
blacks  of  all  ages,  clad  in  rags,  with  no  possessions 
except  the  nondescript  bundles  of  all  sizes  which  the 
adults  carried  on  their  backs,  had  come  together 
at  Norfolk,  Hampton,  Alexandria,  and  Washington. 
Sickness,  want  of  food  and  shelter,  sometimes  result¬ 
ing  in  crime,  appealed  to  the  sympathies  of  every  feel¬ 
ing  heart.  Landless,  homeless,  helpless  families  in 
multitudes,  including  a  proportion  of  wretched  white 
people,  were  flocking  northward  from  Tennessee  and 
Kentucky,  Arkansas  and  Missouri.  They  were,  it  is 
true,  for  a  time  not  only  relieved  by  army  rations, 

.  183 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

spasmodically  issued,  but  were  met  most  kindly  by 
various  volunteer  societies  of  the  North  —  societies 
which  gathered  their  means  from  churches  and  indi¬ 
viduals  at  home  and  abroad. 

During  the  spring  of  1863,  many  different  groups 
and  crowds  of  freedmen  and  refugees,  regular  and  ir¬ 
regular,  were  located  near  the  long  and  broken  line 
of  division  between  the  armies  of  the  North  and 
South,  ranging  from  Maryland  to  the  Kansas  border 
and  along  the  coast  from  Norfolk,  Va.,  to  New 
Orleans,  La.  They  were  similar  in  character  and 
condition  to  those  already  described.  Their  vir¬ 
tues,  their  vices,  their  poverty,  their  sicknesses,  their 
labors,  their  idleness,  their  excess  of  joy,  and  their  ex¬ 
tremes  of  suffering  were  told  to  our  home  people  by 
every  returning  soldier  or  agent,  or  by  the  mission¬ 
aries  who  were  soliciting  the  means  of  relief.  Soon 
in  the  North  an  extraordinary  zeal  for  humanity,  quite 
universal,  sprang  up,  and  a  Christian  spirit  which  was 
never  before  exceeded  began  to  prevail.  The  result 
was  the  organizing  of  numerous  new  bodies  of  asso¬ 
ciated  workers,  whose  influence  kept  our  country  free 
from  the  ills  attending  emancipation  elsewhere;  it 
saved  us  from  negro  insurrection,  anarchy,  and  bloody 
massacre,  with  which  the  proslavery  men  and  even 
the  conservative  readers  of  history  had  threatened 
the  land. 

The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Salmon  P.  Chase, 
always  anxious  for  successful  emancipation,  had  had 
brought  to  his  attention  early  in  1862  the  accumula¬ 
tions  of  the  best  cotton  on  abandoned  sea-island  plan¬ 
tations  ;  there  was  the  opportunity  to  raise  more ;  and 
the  many  slaves  in  the  vicinity  practically  set  free  and 
under  governmental  control,  could  be  worked  to  advan- 

184 


Negro  Conditions  During  the  Civil  War 

tage.  The  cotton  was  to  be  collected  by  Treasury 
agents  and  the  freedmen  benefited. 

During  the  summer  of  1864,  Wm.  Pitt  Fessenden, 
who  had  replaced  Mr.  Chase  as  Secretary  of  the  Treas¬ 
ury,  inaugurated  a  new  plan  for  the  freedmen  and  the 
abandoned  lands.  He  appointed  and  located  super¬ 
vising  special  agents  of  his  Department  in  different 
portions  of  the  South  which  were  now  free  from  Con¬ 
federate  troops.  These  agents  had  charge  of  the 
freedmen.  Each  was  to  form  here  and  there  settle¬ 
ments  on  abandoned  estates,  each  denominated  a 
“  Freedman’s  Home  Colony,”  and  situated  in  his  own 
district,  and  he  must  appoint  a  supervisor  for  such 
colonies  as  he  should  establish.  A  number  of  such 
colonies  were  formed.  The  supervisor  provided  build¬ 
ings,  obtained  work  animals  and  implements  of  hus¬ 
bandry  and  other  essential  supplies;  he  kept  a  book 
of  record,  which  mentioned  the  former  owner  of  the 
land,  the  name,  age,  residence,  and  trade  or  occupa¬ 
tion  of  each  colonist ;  all  births,  deaths,  and  marriages ; 
the  coming  and  going  of  each  employee,  and  other  like 
data.  These  agents  and  supervisors  were  sometimes 
taken  under  military  control  by  the  local  commander, 
and  sometimes  operated  independently. 

Under  this  plan  the  freed  people  were  classified  for 
fixed  wages  varying  from  $10  to  $25  per  month,  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  class,  and  whether  male  or  female. 
There  was  a  complete  and  detailed  system  of  employ¬ 
ment.  Food  and  clothing  were  guaranteed  at  cost, 
and  all  parties  concerned  were  put  under  written  con¬ 
tracts.  For  a  time  in  some  places  this  system  worked 
fairly  well.  It  was  a  stepping-stone  to  independence. 
The  working  people  usually  had  in  the  supervisors 
and  treasury  agents  friendly  counselors;  and  when 

185 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

minor  courts  of  any  sort  were  established  under  them 
for  hearing  complaints  of  fraud  or  oppression,  these 
officials  reviewed  the  cases  and  their  decisions  were 
final.  These  were  rather  short  steps  in  the  path  of 
progress!  They  were  experiments. 

From  the  time  of  the  opening  of  New  Orleans  in 
1862  till  1865,  different  systems  of  caring  for  the  es¬ 
caped  slaves  and  their  families  were  tried  in  the  South¬ 
west.  Generals  Butler  and  Banks,  each  in  his  turn 
sought  to  provide  for  the  thousands  of  destitute  freed- 
men  in  medicines,  rations,  and  clothing.  Colonies 
were  soon  formed  and  sent  to  abandoned  plantations. 
A  sort  of  general  poor  farm  was  established  and  called 
“  the  Home  Colony.”  Mr.  Thomas  W.  Conway,  when 
first  put  in  charge  of  the  whole  region  as  “  Superin¬ 
tendent  of  the  Bureau  of  Free  Labor,”  tried  to  impress 
upon  all  freedmen  who  came  under  his  charge  in  these 
home  colonies  that  they  must  work  as  hard  as  if 
they  were  employed  by  contract  on  the  plantation  of 
a  private  citizen.  His  avowed  object,  and  indeed 
that  of  every  local  superintendent,  was  to  render 
the  freedmen  self-supporting.  One  bright  freedman 
said :  “  I  always  kept  master  and  me.  Guess  I  can 
keep  me.” 

Two  methods  at  first  not  much  in  advance  of  sla¬ 
very  were  used :  one  was  to  force  the  laborers  to  toil ; 
and  the  second,  when  wages  were  paid,  to  fix  exact 
rates  for  them  by  orders.  Each  colony  from  the  first 
had  a  superintendent,  a  physician,  a  clerk,  and  an  in¬ 
structor  in  farming.  The  primary  and  Sunday  schools 
were  not  wanting,  and  churches  were  encouraged. 

Early  in  1863,  General  Lorenzo  Thomas,  the  ad¬ 
jutant  general  of  the  army,  was  organizing  colored 
troops  along  the  Mississippi  River.  After  consulting 

186 


Negro  Conditions  During  the  Civil  War 

various  Treasury  agents  and  department  commanders, 
including  General  Grant,  and  having  also  the  approval 
of  Mr.  Lincoln,  he  issued  from  Milliken’s  Bend,  La., 
April  15th,  a  lengthy  series  of  instructions  cover¬ 
ing  the  territory  bordering  the  Mississippi  and  includ¬ 
ing  all  the  inhabitants. 

He  appointed  three  commissioners,  Messrs.  Field, 
Shickle  and  Livermore,  to  lease  plantations  and  care 
for  the  employees.  He  adroitly  encouraged  private 
enterprise  instead  of  Government  colonies;  hut  lie 
fixed  the  wages  of  able-bodied  men  over  fifteen  years 
of  age  at  $7  per  month,  for  able-bodied  women  $5 
per  month,  for  children  from  twelve  to  fifteen  years, 
half  price.  He  laid  a  tax  for  revenue  of  $2  per  400 
lbs.  on  cotton,  and  five  cents  per  bushel  on  corn  and 
potatoes. 

This  plan  naturally  did  not  work  well,  for  the  les¬ 
sees  of  plantations  proved  to  be  for  the  most  part 
adventurers  and  speculators.  Of  course  such  men 
took  advantage  of  the  ignorant  people.  The  commis¬ 
sioners  themselves  seem  to  have  done  more  for  the 
lessees  than  for  the  laborers ;  and  in  fact  the  wages 
were  from  the  beginning  so  fixed  as  to  benefit  and 
enrich  the  employer.  Two  dollars  per  month  was 
stopped  against  each  of  the  employed,  ostensibly  for 
medical  attendance,  but  to  most  plantations  thus  leased 
no  physician  or  medicine  ever  came,  and  there  were 
other  attendant  cruelties  which  avarice  contrived. 

On  fifteen  plantations  leased  by  the  negroes  them¬ 
selves  in  this  region  there  was  a  notable  success ;  and 
also  in  a  few  instances  among  the  others  where  human¬ 
ity  and  good  sense  reigned,  the  contracts  were  gener¬ 
ally  carried  out.  Here  the  negroes  were  contented  and 
grateful  and  were  able  to  lay  by  small  gains.  This 

187  ' 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

plantation  arrangement  along  the  Mississippi  under 
the  commissioners  as  well  as  the  management  of  nu¬ 
merous  infirmary  camps  passed,  about  the  close  of  1863, 
from  the  War  to  the  Treasury  Department.  A  new 
commission  or  agency,  with  Mr.  W.  P.  Mellen  of  the 
Treasury  at  the  head,  established  more  careful  and 
complete  regulations  than  those  of  General  L.  Thomas : 
this  time  it  was  done  decidedly  in  the  interest  of  the 
laborers. 

Then  came  another  change  of  jurisdiction.  On 
March  11,  1865,  General  Stephen  A.  Hurlbut  at  New 
Orleans  assumed  the  charge  of  freedmen  and  labor 
for  the  state  of  Louisiana.  He  based  his  orders  on 
the  failure  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  to  recog¬ 
nize  the  regulations  of  that  Secretary’s  own  general 
agent,  Mr.  Mellen.  Mr.  Thomas  W.  Conway  was  an¬ 
nounced  as  “  Superintendent  of  Home  Colonies,”  the 
word  having  a  larger  extension  than  before.  A  reg¬ 
istry  of  plantations,  hire  and  compensation  of  labor, 
with  a  fair  schedule  of  wages,  penalties  for  idleness 
and  crime,  time  and  perquisites  of  labor,  the  poll  tax 
of  $2  per  year,  liens  and  security  for  work  done,  were 
carefully  provided  for  by  General  Hurlbut’ s  specific 
instructions. 

General  Edward  R.  S.  Canby,  a  little  later,  from 
Mobile,  Ala.,  issued  similar  orders,  and  Mr.  Conway 
was  also  placed  over  the  freedmen’s  interests  in  his 
vicinity.  Thus  the  whole  freedmen’s  management  for 
Alabama,  Southern  Mississippi,  and  Louisiana  was 
concentrated  under  Mr.  Conway’s  control.  He  re¬ 
ported  early  in  1865  that  there  were  about  twenty  col¬ 
ored  regiments  in  Louisiana  under  pay  and  that  they 
could  purchase  every  inch  of  confiscated  and  aban¬ 
doned  land  in  the  hands  of  the  Government  in  that 

188 


Negro  Conditions  During  the  Civil  War 

State.  All  the  soldiers  desired  to  have  the  land  on  the 
expiration  of  enlistment.  One  regiment  had  in  hand 
$50,000  for  the  purpose  of  buying  five  of  the  largest 
plantations  on  the  Mississippi.  It  was  at  the  time 
thought  by  many  persons  interested  in  the  future  of 
the  freedmen  that  the  abandoned  and  confiscable  lands 
if  used  for  them  would  afford  a  wholesome  solution 
to  the  negro  problem. 

On  December  21,  1864,  when  the  Confederate  com¬ 
mander,  General  Wm.  J.  Hardee,  withdrew  his  troops 
from  Savannah,  Ga.,  and  our  forces  thus  finish¬ 
ing  Sherman’s  ,  march  to  the  sea,  in  joyous  triumph 
came  into  the  city,  I  saw  plainly  enough  that  the  white 
people  were  overwhelmed  with  a  sense  of  their  defeat 
and  helplessness.  But  it  was  the  precise  opposite 
with  the  slave  inhabitants.  It  was  a  day  of  manifest 
joy,  for  wasn’t  it  a  visible  answer  to  their  long-con¬ 
tinued  and  importunate  prayers?  It  was  a  positive 
deliverance  from  bondage,  the  ushering  in  of  the  fruit¬ 
age  of  brighter  hopes.  Certainly  so  it  all  appeared 
to  these  simple  souls  who  met  our  columns  of  troops 
at  every  point  in  crowds,  and  with  arms  akimbo  danced 
and  sang  their  noisy  welcome. 

A  few  days  after  the  triumphal  entrance,  Secre¬ 
tary  of  War  Stanton  came  in  person  from  Washington 
to  convey  his  grateful  acknowledgment  to  General 
Sherman  and  his  army  for  their  late  achievements. 
While  at  Savannah  he  examined  into  the  condition  of 
the  liberated  negroes  found  in  that  city.  He  as¬ 
sembled  twenty  of  those  who  were  deemed  tlieir  lead¬ 
ers.  Among  them  were  barbers,  pilots,  and  sailors, 
some  ministers,  and  others  who  had  been  overseers  on 
cotton  and  rice  plantations.  Mr.  Stanton  and  General 
Sherman  gave  them  a  hearing.  It  would  have  been 

189 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

wise  if  our  statesmen  could  have  received,  digested, 
and  acted  upon  the  answers  these  men  gave  to  their 
questions.  Garrison  Frazier  was  the  chosen  spokes¬ 
man.  The  first  question  referred  to  the  interpretation 
of  Mr.  Lincoln’s  proclamation.  Frazier  answered 
that  it  provided  that  if  the  States  concerned  did  not 
lay  down  their  arms  and  submit  to  the  laws  of  the 
United  States  before  January  1,  1863,  all  the  slaves 
would  be  free  henceforth  and  forever. 

When  asked  to  define  slavery  and  freedom,  he  said 
that  “  Slavery  is  receiving  by  irresistible  power  the 
work  of  another  man,  and  not  by  his  consent.  Free¬ 
dom  is  taking  us  from  under  the  yoke  of  bondage  and 
placing  us  where  we  can  reap  the  fruit  of  our  own 
labor,  and  take  care  of  ourselves,  and  assist  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  in  maintaining  our  freedom.” 

In  answer  to  a  question  as  to  where  they  would 
rather  live,  whether  scattered  among  the  whites  or  in 
colonies  by  themselves,  he  answered :  “  I  would  prefer 
to  live  by  ourselves,  for  there  is  a  prejudice  against 
us  in  the  South  that  it  will  take  years  to  get  over,  but 
I  do  not  know  that  I  can  answer  for  my  brethren.” 
All  but  one  agreed  with  Frazier,  and  that  one  was  a 
Northern  negro  missionary. 

Mr.  Stanton’s  final  question  was  occasioned  by  re¬ 
cently  published  statements  that  Sherman  was  un¬ 
friendly  to  the  negroes.  Question:  “  State  what  is  the 
feeling  of  the  colored  people  toward  General  Sherman ; 
and  how  far  do  they  regard  his  sentiments  and  actions 
as  friendly  to  their  rights  and  interests!”  The  an¬ 
swer,  though  doubtless  somewhat  diplomatic,  was  an 
able  one: 

“  We  looked  upon  General  Sherman  prior  to  his  ar¬ 
rival  as  a  man  in  the  providence  of  God  specially  set 

190 


Negro  Condition^  During  the  Civil  War 

apart  to  accomplish  this  work;  and  we  unanimously 
felt  inexpressible  gratitude  to  him,  looking  upon  him 
as  a  man  who  should  be  honored  for  the  faithful  per¬ 
formance  of  his  duty.  Some  of  us  called  upon  him 
immediately  upon  his  arrival,  and  it  is  probable  that 
he  did  not  meet  the  Secretary  with  more  courtesy  than 
he  did  us.  His  conduct  and  deportment  toward  us 
characterized  him  as  a  friend  and  a  gentleman.  We 
have  confidence  in  General  Sherman,  and  think  what 
concerns  us  could  not  be  in  better  hands.  This  is  our 
opinion  now,  from  the  short  acquaintance  and  inter¬ 
view  we  have  had.” 

As  a  result  of  this  investigation  and  after  consider¬ 
able  meditation  upon  the  perplexing  problem  as  to 
what  to  do  with  the  growing  masses  of  unemployed 
negroes  and  their  families,  and  after  a  full  consulta¬ 
tion  with  Mr.  Stanton,  General  Sherman  issued  his 
Sea-Island  Circular,  January  16,  1865.  In  this  paper 
the  islands  from  Charleston  south,  the  abandoned  rice 
fields  along  the  rivers  for  thirty  miles  back  from  the 
sea,  and  the  country  bordering  the  St.  Johns  River, 
Fla.,  were  reserved  for  the  settlement  of  the  negroes 
made  free  by  the  acts  of  war,  and  the  proclamation 
of  the  President. 

General  Rufus  Saxton,  already  on  the  ground,  was 
appointed  Inspector  of  Settlements  and  Plantations; 
no  other  change  was  intended  or  desired  in  the  settle¬ 
ments  on  Beaufort  Island  which  had,  for  three  years 
been  established. 

The  inspector  was  required  to  make  proper  allot¬ 
ments  and  give  possessory  titles  and  defend  them  till 
Congress  should  confirm  his  actions.  It  was  a  bold 
move.  Thousands  of  negro  families  were  distributed 
under  this  circular,  and  the  freed  people  regarded 

191 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

themselves  for  more  than  six  months  as  in  permanent 
possession  of  these  abandoned  lands. 

The  immediate  effect  was  good.  Idle  masses  were 
sent  from  cities  and  villages  and  from  the  various 
army  columns  to  find  relief  and  to  set  out  upon  a 
course  of  thrifty  industry  which  was  hopeful  and  help¬ 
ful  to  their  future. 

There  were  plenty  of  friendly  hands  to  give  aid 
where  it  was  needed.  Zealous,  self-denying  Christian 
teachers  followed  up  the  distribution  to  inaugurate 
primary  schools.  In  one  instance,  on  an  island  far 
from  any  white  settlement,  three  maiden  ladies  of 
wealth  who  had  come  from  New  England  started  a 
school  with  all  the  appliances  of  object  teaching  and 
all  the  neatness  of  a  Northern  academy.  Officers  of 
the  army  of  high  rank  and  their  friends,  and  immi¬ 
grants  with  their  wives  and  daughters  from  the  North¬ 
ern  States  took  an  active  interest  in  this  humane  work. 
This  part  of  the  field  came  under  my  earliest  personal 
observation.  Here  I  found  fairly  good  schools  in  Jan¬ 
uary,  1865,  and  visited  several  of  them. 

At  that  time  when  with  the  advance  of  Sherman’s 
army  I  came  to  Beaufort,  South  Carolina,  moving  that 
way  to  the  North  from  Savannah,  many  plantations 
near  at  hand  and  on  the  different  sea  islands,  deserted 
by  their  owners,  had  been  sold  by  the  United  States 
tax  commissioners  and  tax  titles  given  to  white  immi¬ 
grants  from  the  North,  to  loyal  white  refugees,  and  to 
promising  freedmen.  Numbers  of  farms  so  obtained 
were  occupied  and  under  cultivation.  One  proprietor, 
Mr.  C.  F.  P.  Bancroft,  had  bought  in  at  public  auc¬ 
tions,  held  on  the  sea  islands  in  March,  1863,  thir¬ 
teen  plantations.  He  then  employed  400  laborers,  all 
being  old  men,  women,  and  children.  The  average 

192 


Negro  Conditions  During  the  Civil  War 

earnings  of  each  over  and  above  his  house  rent,  food 
raised  by  himself,  and  his  own  crop  of  cotton  were 
$16.50  per  month.  This  landholder,  with  $40,000  out¬ 
lay,  received  a  net  profit  on  his  sea  island  cotton  of 
$81,000  in  one  year.  He  had  maintained  five  schools 
with  an  attendance  of  300  scholars.  He  also  had  kept 
in  operation  five  stores  wherein  $20,000  worth  of  goods 
such  as  housekeeping  articles  and  necessary  clothing 
were  disposed  of  at  cost. 

When  our  great  army  came  more  or  less  to  dis¬ 
turb  the  peace  and  quiet  of  the  settlements  along  the 
coast  everything  was  in  a  thriving  condition.  The 
people  were  happy,  the  schools  appreciated,  and  the 
future  hopeful.  The  tax  titles  to  the  abandoned 
lands  were  better  than  those  under  the  Confiscation 
Act,  or  General  Sherman’s  possessory  tenures.  These 
tax  titles,  at  a  later  day,  afforded  some  restriction  to 
the  merciless  decisions  and  orders  which  swept  over 
all  the  estates  and  stripped  the  freedmen  of  what  they 
possessed. 


193 


CHAPTER  XLVII 


freedmen’s  aid  societies  and  an  act  of  congress 

CREATING  A  BUREAU  OF  REFUGEES,  FREEDMEN 
AND  ABANDONED  LANDS 

TOURING  the  progress  of  the  war  it  was  a  noble 
characteristic  of  our  home  people  that  they  fol¬ 
lowed  the  armies  with  such  abundant  evidence  of  their 
interest  and  affection.  Through  the  Christian  and 
Sanitary  Commissions,  they  showed  themselves  in 
every  hospital,  on  every  field  after  battle,  and  in  every 
camp.  With  faithful  assiduity  they  pressed  forward 
an  abundance  of  supplies  and  agents  to  distribute 
them  to  the  front,  to  such  an  extent  that  commanders 
like  Sherman,  in  the  light  of  what  they  deemed  larger 
interests,  at  times  were  obliged  to  restrain  their  ardor ; 
but  such  restraints  were  infrequent  and  caused  by  a 
temporary  necessity. 

Voluntary  contributions  1  of  $12,440,294.57  of  cash 
expenditures  and  more  than  double  this  amount  in 
clothing  and  comforts  were  thus  generously  given 
through  these  two  leading  commissions.  The  commis¬ 
sions  sought  to  better  the  rations,  to  prevent  sickness, 
to  supply  the  hospitals  with  all  possible  home  relief, 
to  succor  the  wounded,  and  to  smooth  the  pillows  of 
those  who  could  not  live.  And,  really,  not  the  least 


1  Aggregate  cash  expenditure  Sanitary  Com’n .  $6,962,014.26 

Aggregate  cash  expenditure  Christian  Com’n-. .  5,478,280. 31 


Total .  $12,440,294.57 

194 


Freedmen’s  Aid  Societies 


of  these  happy  provisions  was  centered  in  the  selected 
agent  himself,  who  brought  with  him  a  breath  from 
home,  who  cheered  the  weary  and  suffering,  and  gave 
them  visions  of  peace,  love,  and  hope.  He  made  it 
happier  for  the  sick  soldier  to  live,  and  easier  for  the 
extremely  ill  and  the  fatally  wounded  to  die. 

Still  more  remarkable  was  the  almost  universal 
interest,  often  amounting  to  enthusiasm,  manifested 
among  the  people  of  our  Northern,  Central,  and  West¬ 
ern  States  for  the  relief  of  the  white  refugees  and  the 
freed  people.  The  donors  who  rose  up  everywhere 
without  stint  sought  channels  to  bestow  their  gifts. 
They  took  up,  as  we  have  already  seen,  existing  organ¬ 
izations  where  they  could  find  those  willing  to  do  their 
behests.  For  example,  they  used  the  Christian  Com¬ 
mission  for  the  East  and  Sanitary  Commission  for  the 
West;  also,  East  and  West,  the  American  Tract  So¬ 
ciety  and  the  American  Missionary  Association,  and 
many  others  connected  with  the  Catholic  and  Protes¬ 
tant  Churches.  By  the  chosen  agents  of  these,  help 
was  brought  to  those  needy  classes — clothing,  food, 
medical  attendance,  and  medical  supplies — and  always 
schools;  for,  as  the  benevolent  actors  thought,  educa¬ 
tion  was  to  be  the  permanent  cure  for  all  existing  ills. 

The  prevailing  thought  was :  The  slaves  are  becom¬ 
ing  free;  give  them  knowledge — teach  them  to  read — 
teach  the  child!  This  work  thus  undertaken  was  at 
first  very  irregular  and  spasmodic ;  only  here  and  there 
was  there  any  settled  system  of  doing. 

The  generous  enthusiasm  for  the  freedmen  pushed 
the  eager  home  people  further  still.  Unsatisfied  with 
present  facilities,  they  organized  new  commissions,  so¬ 
cieties,  associations,  leagues.  The  following  names 
of  a  score  of  them  bear  their  own  interpretation: 

195 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

The  Educational  Commission  of  Boston. 

The  Port  Royal  Relief  of  Philadelphia. 

The  American  Freedmen’s  Aid  Commission. 

The  Freedmen’s  Aid  Commission  of  Western  Pennsylvania 
and  adjacent  parts  of  West  Virginia. 

The  Western  Freedmen’s  Aid  Commission. 

The  Northwestern  Freedmen’s  Aid  Commission. 

The  National  Freedmen’s  Aid  Commission. 

The  National  Freedmen’s  Relief  Association  of  New  York. 

The  Emancipation  League  of  Massachusetts. 

The  New  England  Freedmen’s  Aid  Society. 

The  Pennsylvania  Freedmen’s  Relief  Association. 

The  Baltimore  Association  of  Moral  and  Educational  Im¬ 
provement  of  the  Colored  People. 

Delaware  Freedmen’s  Association. 

The  Ladies’  Aid  Society  of  Philadelphia. 

Friends’  Relief  Association. 

Besides  these  our  large  church  bodies  formed,  each 
within  its  own  community,  what  they  called  a  Freed- 
men’s  Department;  so  that  there  existed  for  many 
years  Methodist,  Baptist,  Episcopal,  Catholic,  Pres¬ 
byterian,  and  Unitarian  Freedmen’s  Departments. 

The  Congregational  churches,  as  well  as  many  in¬ 
dividuals  from  the  outside,  habitually  used  the  Amer¬ 
ican  Missionary  Association  for  their  channel  of  freed- 
men’s  work. 

In  Great  Britain  there  was  in  operation  for  some 
years  the  Freedmen’s  Society  of  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland.  This  society,  being  central,  with  its  main  of¬ 
fice  in  London,  was  fed  by  numerous  other  freedmen’s 
aid  societies  in  the  United  Kingdom.  Its  contribution 
to  us  exceeded  $800,000. 

It  is  not  possible  to  sum  up  with  any  accuracy  the 
generous  gifts  for  the  indigent  classes  found  in  the 
South  and  Middle  West  prior  to  the  operation  of 

196 


Freedmen’s  Aid  Societies 

the  Freedmen’s  Bureau  Law.  It  had  reached  about 

$1,000,000. 

A  convention  of  freedmen’s  associations,  with  a 
view  to  secure  concert  of  action,  assembled  during  the 
war  in  Indianapolis,  Indiana,  July  19,  1864.  Their 
proceedings  give  a  slight  indication  of  how  the  people 
felt  the  responsibility  pressing  them  and  how  they 
proposed  to  meet  it.  The  convention  was  made  up  of 
seven  Western  associations  or  branches.  There  had 
been  overlapping  and  interfering  in  their  previous 
operations,  and  their  field  agents  had  had  trouble¬ 
some  rivalries  and  contentions.  Again,  in  some  places 
cooperation  with  the  army  officers  in  command  and 
with  Treasury  agents  sent  from  Washington  under  spe¬ 
cial  instructions,  had  not  been  secured,  so  that  there 
was  between  them  hurtful  friction.  Other  difficulties 
confronted  them,  such  as  the  existing  social  conditions 
in  the  border  States,  and  for  that  matter,  the  same 
in  all  the  seceded  States.  Most  people  there  were  un¬ 
friendly  to  Northern  teachers  and  vexed  at  Northern 
interference;  and  there  were  the  unwelcome  stuffings 
of  population  from  place  to  place.  Still,  the  enthu¬ 
siastic  delegates  to  the  convention  never  dreamed  of 
surrender,  or  of  abatement  of  interest  and  effort. 
They  publicly  declared  that  they  had  at  this  time  the 
grandest  opportunities  that  ever  presented  themselves 
to  Christian  benevolence  and  activity;  and  so  in  their 
session  of  two  days  they  formulated  and  forwarded  a 
memorable  petition  to  President  Lincoln. 

In  this  instrument,  after  summing  up  the  pressing 
wants  of  freedmen  and  refugees,  and  presenting  in 
strong  light  their  own  various  agitations  and  obstacles, 
and  something  of  their  disappointment  that  Congress 
had  thus  far  failed  to  establish  any  bureau  of  freed- 

197 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

men’s  affairs,  they  entreated  the  President  to  give 
them  at  least  a  “  Supervising  Agent  ”  for  the  West. 
They  desired  that  this  agent  should  have  military 
power  and  authority,  meaning  undoubtedly  that  the 
President  should  detail  for  that  duty  a  military  offi¬ 
cer  of  sufficient  rank  to  overcome  all  controversy  in  the 
execution  of  his  trust.  The  memorial  petition  was 
sent  to  Congress,  and  had  its  weight  with  that  body 
in  securing  the  final  enactment  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bu¬ 
reau  Law. 

The  Emancipation  League  of  Massachusetts,  as 
early  as  January,  1863,  had  likewise  sent  to  the  Senate 
an  earnest  petition,  asking  for  the  creation  of  a  “  Bu¬ 
reau  of  Emancipation  ” ;  and  other  societies  had  at  dif¬ 
ferent  times,  in  one  form  or  another,  urged  upon  their 
representatives  in  Congress  some  governmental  de¬ 
partment  to  meet  the  new  situation  of  affairs,  which 
now  concerned  millions  of  slaves  set  free,  and  affected 
thousands  of  loyal  whites  who  had  been  driven  from 
their  homes  by  the  operations  and  consequences  of  the 
great  war. 

The  Honorable  Thomas  D.  Eliot,  member  of  the 
House  from  Massachusetts,  whom,  after  personal  ac¬ 
quaintance,  I  learned  to  love  and  honor,  was  early 
made  chairman  of  committees  which  had  under  con¬ 
sideration  freedmen’s  matters.  He  was  an  able,  elo¬ 
quent,  and  persevering  friend  of  the  emancipated. 
The  field  societies  looked  to  him  for  sympathy  and  help 
in  the  House,  as  they  always  did  to  Henry  Wilson 
and  Charles  Sumner  in  the  Senate.  Eliot  and  Wilson 
were  never  extremists.  They  were  wisely  progress¬ 
ive;  if  they  could  not  take  two  steps  forward,  they 
would  take  one,  and  bide  their  time  for  further 
advance. 


198 


Freedmen’s  Aid  Societies 


Mr.  Eliot,  tlie  latter  part  of  January,  1863,  began 
liis  open  work  by  a  House  bill  to  try  to  establish  a 
“  Bureau  of  Emancipation.”  As  this  was  smothered 
in  the  committee  room  and  produced  no  fruit,  he  intro¬ 
duced  another  bill  in  December,  1863,  which  was  re¬ 
ferred  to  a  select  committee  of  which  he  was  chairman. 
It  came  back  from  the  committee  to  the  House  with  a 
majority  and  minority  report.  It  was  first  debated 
on  the  floor  February  10,  1864.  The  provisions  of  this 
interesting  bill  were  substantially: 

1.  The  creation  of  a  Commissioner  of  Freedmen’s 
Affairs.  His  powers  were  to  be  large.  All  matters 
pertaining  to  freedmen,  all  laws  enacted  or  prospec¬ 
tive  concerning  them,  and  all  rules  and  regulations 
for  general  superintendence  and  management  were 
committed  to  him. 

2.  All  officers,  military  or  civil,  having  to  do  with 
freedmen’s  affairs  must  report  and  be  governed  by 
him. 

3.  He  was  especially  instructed  to  give  protection 
to  the  freedmen  in  their  rights,  and  to  care  for  the  in¬ 
terests  of  the  United  States  touching  them. 

4.  He  was  able  to  organize  departments  of  freed¬ 
men  to  be  placed  under  assistant  commissioners  who 
were  to  report  to  him. 

5.  These  assistants  were  to  allow  freedmen  to  oc¬ 
cupy,  cultivate,  and  improve  abandoned  lands ;  assist 
them  to  labor  properly  compensated;  aid  them  to  ob¬ 
tain  their  wages  duly  earned,  and  arbitrate  all  trouble¬ 
some  controversies  except  in  those  localities  where 
existing  legal  tribunals  could  receive  the  cases  at 
issue. 

6.  The  commissioner  himself  was  to  act  under  the 
supervision  and  direction  of  the  Secretary  of  War, 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

though  all  assistants,  both  civil  and  military,  were  to 
be  subordinated  to  the  commissioner. 

The  lively  debate  upon  this  bill,  even  in  a  dry  rec¬ 
ord,  is  full  of  interest.  The  opposition  came  not  only 
from  the  Democratic  party,  but  many  of  the  Bepub- 
licans  thought  the  measure  unwise,  abnormal  to  our 
system  of  government,  and  that  there  might  be  some 
other  expedient  devised  than  either  a  Department  or 
Bureau  of  Negro  Affairs. 

Democrats  like  Samuel  S.  Cox  of  New  York  and 
George  H.  Pendleton  of  Ohio,  and  James  Brooks  of 
New  York,  attacked  the  proposed  measure  with  argu¬ 
ment,  with  ridicule,  and  with  abundant  sarcasm.  But 
Mr.  Eliot  was  at  his  best.  He  pleasantly  answered 
every  objection  and  earnestly  called  on  the  friends 
of  the  Government  and  of  humanity  to  rally  around 
him  upon  the  side  of  duty. 

The  bill  at  last  passed  the  House,  but  only  with 
a  majority  of  two  votes.  May  25th,  this  bill,  some¬ 
what  amended,  was  reported  to  the  Senate  by  Mr. 
Sumner.  It  encountered  for  some  days  hot  and  strong 
opposition  there,  pleading  against  its  constitutionality 
and  expediency,  but  was  finally  passed  by  a  majority 
of  twelve  votes. 

While  the  friends  of  the  original  bill  were  urging 
the  House  to  nonconcur  in  the  Senate  amendments, 
the  whole  subject  by  a  new  motion,  disheartening  to 
its  friends,  was  postponed  to  the  ensuing  session  of 
Congress. 

During  the  next  session,  after  many  disagreements 
on  the  bill  between  the  two  Houses,  the  Conference 
Committee  proposed  a  substitute.  It  came  up  in  the 
House  in  Februarv,  1865.  The  substitute  established 
an  independent  Executive  Department  of  Freedmen’s 

200 


Freedmen’s  Aid  Societies 


Affairs.  Every  provision  in  the  two  previous  bills 
remained  substantially  unchanged.  The  new  draft 
went  through  the  House  by  a  vote  of  64  against  62. 

In  the  Senate  this  new  bill  met  with  an  increasing 
opposition,  and  so  February  28th  still  another  bill  had 
grown  out  of  the  hot  debate  of  the  Conference  Com¬ 
mittee.  To  prevent  its  passage  unusual  expedients 
were  resorted  to,  and  dilatory  motions  were  made, 
sometimes  for  postponement  and  sometimes  for  ad¬ 
journment,  but  finally  this  bill,  so  long  squabbled  over, 
with  slight  amendment  passed  the  Senate;  and  being 
again  carried  to  the  House,  after  a  short  debate  went 
through  that  body  without  a  division. 

The  same  day,  March  3,  1865,  President  Lincoln 
signed  it;  and  having  his  approval,  the  Act  establish¬ 
ing  the  Bureau  of  Refugees,  Freedmen  and  Aban¬ 
doned  Lands  became  a  law. 

Its  provisions  as  far  as  they  went  were  good,  and 
were  developed  from  the  first  draft  which  Mr.  Eliot 
had  introduced  in  the  House  more  than  two  years 
before. 

This  Act  of  Congress,  which  in  its  plan  and  subse¬ 
quent  life  seemed  to  grow  like  a  tender  shoot  till  it 
became  a  green  tree  with  abundant  branches,  was  des¬ 
tined  by  its  fruitage  to  accomplish  great  things.  The 
varied  character  of  its  fruitage  will  appear  as  we  go 
on  to  develop  the  organization  that  grew  out  of  this 
remarkable  legislation.  This  statute  law  greatly  af¬ 
fected  my  own  work.  In  fact,  upon  it  turned  much  of 
my  subsequent  career  in  life.  As  we  may  notice,  it 
established  a  bureau  in  the  War  Department.  The 
word  “  bureau  ”  excited  considerable  amusement  in  the 
very  beginning,  even  before  there  was  any  attempt 
to  put  the  Act  of  Congress  into  execution.  One  poor 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

colored  woman,  who  had  been  a  slave,  came  to  an  offi¬ 
cial  in  the  War  Department  and  said  she  had  been  a 
long  time  in  want  of  a  bureau,  and  that  she  understood 
that  there  was  one  there  waiting  for  her. 

By  a  few  well  chosen  lines  the  cartoonist  Nast,  be¬ 
fore  his  audiences,  frequently  represented  on  a  black¬ 
board  a  sizable  bureau  with  the  drawers  open  and  little 
curly-headed  colored  children  jumping  out  from  them. 
The  serious  people  of  the  country,  however,  were  re¬ 
joiced  that  the  representations  of  their  delegates  in 
their  Indiana  Convention  had  at  last  resulted,  through 
the  President  and  Congress,  in  providing  a  benevo¬ 
lent  system  for  those  just  freed  from  slavery,  and  for 
those,  white  and  colored,  who  had  been  driven  hither 
and  thither  by  the  operations  of  the  Civil  War.  The 
first  provision,  however,  was  for  only  one  year  after 
peace.  It  committed  all  subjects  relating  to  the 
classes  named  to  the  care  of  the  new  Bureau,  and  it 
put  the  responsibility  for  the  operations  of  the  Bureau 
upon  the  President  himself.  The  use  of  abandoned 
lands,  authorized  by  the  Act,  was  intended  to  give 
some  revenue  to  the  Government,  thus  hoping,  if  pos¬ 
sible,  to  avoid  direct  appropriations  of  money.  The 
part  that  was  to  interest  me  most  was  the  provision 
that  the  head  or  commissioner  and  his  assistants  might 
be  detailed  from  the  army  and  assigned  to  duty  with¬ 
out  increase  of  pay  or  allowances.  In  fact,  the  Pres¬ 
ident  could  take  any  or  all  of  the  officials  required 
from  the  military  service. 

There  was  another  use  besides  the  purpose  of  rev¬ 
enue  for  the  abandoned  lands,  the  commissioner  be¬ 
ing  required  to  set  apart  for  the  use  of  loyal  depend¬ 
ents  such  abandoned  farms  as  he  should  find  in  the 
insurrectionary  States,  or  farms  of  which  the  United 

202 


Freedmen’s  Aid  Societies 

States  became  the  possessor  by  confiscation,  by  sale, 
or  in  any  other  way.  Even  the  number  of  acres  was 
designated  for  each  person.  The  commissioner  was 
instructed  further  to  secure  the  use  of  these  farms  to 
the  occupants  for  three  years,  and  further  to  charge 
a  rental  of  6  per  cent,  on  a  proper  valuation. 

This  benevolence  was  extended  yet  more — that  the 
free  inhabitants  just  emancipated  might  purchase  the 
land  at  the  expiration  of  their  leases.  This  sort  of 
legislation,  in  1865,  was  quite  new  to  our  Government. 
It  was  the  exercise  of  benevolent  functions  hitherto 
always  contended  against  by  our  leading  statesmen, 
even  when  providing  for  the  Indian  Bureau.  The 
Nation,  as  something  to  love  and  cherish  and  to  give 
forth  sympathy  and  aid  to  the  destitute,  began  then 
to  be  more  pronounced  than  ever  before.  Our  atti¬ 
tude  toward  the  Indians  in  General  Grant’s  peace 
policy  and  in  giving  them  land  in  severalty;  our  in¬ 
tervention  in  Cuba  and  our  subsequent  neighborly 
action  toward  the  people  of  that  island;  our  national 
efforts  to  lift  up  the  people  of  Porto  Rico,  and  our 
sending  instructors  in  large  numbers  to  set  in  motion 
the  work  of  education  in  the  Philippine  Islands :  these 
and  other  benevolences  suggested  by  this  reference 
make  the  people  of  to-day  feel  that  at  last  we  have  a 
Nation  which  cares  for  its  children.  A  martinet  sys¬ 
tem  always  suggests  bones  and  sinews  which  make 
up  the  form  of  a  man  without  a  soul.  It  was  always 
hard  to  love  a  Government  which,  theoretically,  was 
a  mere  machine  and  which  could  extend  no  sympathy 
to  people  in  disaster,  nor  kindness  to  the  impover¬ 
ished.  I  think  we  are  growing  to  cherish  more  and 
more  the  idea  of  a  single  name  for  the  Republic,  and 
we  are  fast  assuming  that  “  America  ”  should  be  that 

203 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

name.  Every  day  we  hear  from  the  North,  South, 
East,  and  West,  the  expression:  “  I  am  proud  that  I 
am  an  American.”  It  was  in  this  spirit  that  my  assist¬ 
ants,  who  in  time  became  very  numerous,  and  my¬ 
self,  in  the  Bureau  work,  began  and  kept  on  in  the 
varied  duties  through  clouds  of  calumny  and  misrepre¬ 
sentation.  The  reward,  as  we  shall  see,  was  in  the 
vast  work  undertaken  and  accomplished  in  the  inter¬ 
est  of  humanity.  In  the  discussions  on  the  floors  of 
Congress  we  see  why  the  Bureau  proposed  had  so 
hard  a  struggle  to  justify  its  existence.  The  friends 
and  opponents  of  the  measure  were  about  equally  di¬ 
vided.  It  was  the  long,  patient,  and  thorough  exam¬ 
ination  of  emancipations  like  ours  in  other  countries 
by  Mr.  Eliot  of  Massachusetts,  and  his  singular  per¬ 
severance  in  bringing  his  bill,  every  time  improved, 
again  and  again  before  the  House,  which  at  last  re¬ 
sulted  in  the  law  and  which  brought  a  positive  relief 
from  the  horrors  which  had  obtained  in  other  nations 
in  their  passage  from  slavery  to  freedom.  He  and 
his  committee  were  never  popular,  but  he  accomplished 
a  great  work  for  his  country. 

The  chaotic  condition  of  all  the  classes  which  were 
mentioned  in  the  Act  of  Congress,  running  as  they 
did  for  the  most  part  to  large  centers  of  population, 
was  not  forgotten  by  Mr.  Eliot’s  committee,  so  that 
one  paragraph  of  the  law  demanded  the  issue  of  pro¬ 
visions,  clothing,  and  food  for  the  immediate  and 
temporary  shelter  of  the  destitute  and  suffering  refu¬ 
gees  and  freedmen,  including  their  wives  and  children. 
It  was  believed  that  these  wants  would  be  but  tempo¬ 
rary.  Indeed,  the  law  itself  was  only  a  temporary 
provision;  still,  there  were  matters  in  it  of  great  im¬ 
portance  which  looked  forward  to  and  virtually  prom- 

204 


Freedmen’s  Aid  Societies 


ised  an  extension  beyond  the  year  of  the  benefits  des¬ 
ignated.  It  would  have  required  more  than  human 
foresight  to  have  wholly  met  the  difficulties  of  this 
dark  period  of  our  Governmental  history,  but  the 
friends  of  the  measure  hoped  that  the  experiences  of 
one  year  of  active  operation  under  the  eye  of  our 
most  energetic  and  able  Secretary  of  War  would  dem¬ 
onstrate  the  value  of  the  Bureau  sufficiently  to  warrant 
at  least  another  year’s  trial. 

Though  Mr.  Lincoln  promptly  approved  the  Bu¬ 
reau  Act,  yet  he  delayed  creating  the  organization 
authorized  by  it.  Doubtless  he  had  sympathetically 
followed  the  debate,  and  so,  to  avoid  the  rocks  and 
quicksands  predicted,  was  earnestly  desiring  to  move 
with  care  and  deliberation.  His  death,  April  15,  1865, 
prevented  him  from  directly  carrying  out  his  purpose ; 
but  he  did  have,  not  long  before  his  death,  a  consulta¬ 
tion  with  Mr.  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  the  Secretary  of 
War,  concerning  the  new  Bureau  in  his  Department, 
and  expressed  to  him  his  wishes  concerning  the  law 
and  the  officials  who  should  carry  it  out.  These 
wishes  were  a  legacy  that  Mr.  Stanton  religiously  re¬ 
spected,  and  as  soon  as  he  could  he  saw  to  it  that  they 
were,  as  far  as  he  could  effect  it,  fulfilled. 

Note. — For  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau  Act  (March  3, 1865),  see  Appendix. 


205 


CHAPTER  XLVIII 


ORGANIZATION  OF  THE  FREEDMEN’S  BUREAU  AND  MY 

PRINCIPLES  OF  ACTION 

T)Y  following  the  army  movements  it  will  be  noticed 
U  that  my  column  reached  the  vicinity  of  Peters¬ 
burg,  Va.,  at  evening  May  6,  1865.  Here  it  rested 
Saturday  and  Sunday  and  renewed  its  march  the  en¬ 
suing  Monday;  and  as  the  divisions  went  through  the 
town  we  passed  in  review  before  a  multitude  of  inter¬ 
ested  spectators. 

At  ten  o’clock  the  morning  of  May  9th,  we  arrived 
at  Manchester,  opposite  Richmond,  where  were  Gen¬ 
eral  Halleck’s  headquarters.  I  paid  a  brief  visit  to 
the  late  Confederate  capital,  and  after  my  return  to 
Manchester,  issued  orders  of  march  pursuant  to  Gen¬ 
eral  Sherman’s  instructions  for  my  two  corps  to  pro¬ 
ceed  via  Hanover  Court  House  to  Alexandria  and 
Washington.  Blair’s  corps  was  to  set  out  the  12th, 
and  Logan’s  to  follow  on  the  13th.  I  then  with  my 
staff  intended  to  go  on  with  Blair’s  head  of  column. 
But  while  there  at  Manchester,  the  following  dispatch, 
which  greatly  surprised  me,  was  placed  in  my  hands: 

Washington,  D.  C.,  May  7,  1865,  9  p.m. 
Major  General  O.  O.  Howard, 

Care  of  General  Halleck,  Richmond,  Ya . 

Leave  your  army  for  corps  commanders  to  bring  overland 
and  come  on  immediately  yourself  by  water.  Report  on 
arrival  to  Secretary  of  War. 

U.  S.  Grant, 
Lieutenant  General. 


206 


Mrs.  O.  O.  Howard 


Organization  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau 

This  message,  enigmatical  enough  for  me,  coming 
into  my  hands  in  the  afternoon,  at  once  received  this 
answer : 

Richmond,  May  9,  1865,  3:15  p.m. 
Lieutenant  General  U .  S.  Grant. 

General:  Your  dispatch  only  just  received.  I  will  conform 
to  it  at  once. 

Respectfully, 

0.  O.  Howard, 

Major  General. 

The  evening  of  May  10,  1865,  found  me  in  Wash¬ 
ington.  I  went  the  next  day  to  the  Secretary’s 
office  in  the  War  Department  and  reported  to  him  as 
I  had  been  instructed.  This  was  not  my  first  inter¬ 
view  with  Edwin  M.  Stanton.  He  had  been  at  times 
very  kind  to  me,  and  particularly  friendly  during  his 
Savannah  visit;  he  had  there  emphasized  his  com¬ 
mendations  for  the  part  I  had  borne  in  Sherman’s 
operations.  He  now  appeared  hearty,  in  good  humor, 
and  glad  to  see  me;  but,  after  a  few  brief  words  of 
greeting,  as  was  usual  with  him,  went  straight  to  the 
business  in  hand.  We  had  hardly  taken  seats  when 
he  took  from  his  desk  and  handed  me  a  copy  of  the 
Freedmen’s  Bureau  Act,  and  said  substantially:  “  We 
have  been  delaying  the  execution  of  this  law  because 
it  has  been  difficult  to  fix  upon  the  commissioner.  You 
notice  that  he  can  be  detailed  from  the  army.  Mr. 
Lincoln  before  his  death  expressed  a  decided  wish  that 
you  should  have  the  office;  but  he  was  not  willing  to 
detail  you  till  you  could  be  spared  from  the  army  in 
the  field.  Now,  as  the  war  is  ended,  the  way  is  clear. 
The  place  will  be  given  you  if  you  are  willing  to 
accept  it.” 

After  a  few  more  words  of  conversation,  and  un- 

207 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

derstanding  that  I  wished  time  for  reflection  and  con¬ 
sultation  with  my  friends,  he  said:  “  Take  the  docu¬ 
ment  and  look  it  over  and  let  me  know  as  soon  as  you 
can  whether  or  not  you  are ‘willing  to  undertake  the 
business.” 

Naturally,  as  the  great  war  drew  to  a  close,  I  had 
been  pondering  the  subject  of  my  future  work.  Should 
I  remain  in  the  army  or  not?  What  as  a  young  man 
of  thirty-four  had  I  better  do!  The  opportunity  af¬ 
forded  by  this  offer  appeared  to  me  at  once  to  answer 
my  anxious  inquiries.  Indeed  it  seemed  providential ; 
so  in  my  consciousness  my  mind  was  virtually  made 
up  even  before  I  left  the  War  Office;  my  custom  in 
war  had  never  suffered  me  to  hold  decisions  long  in 
abeyance. 

The  morning  of  May  12th,  I  returned  to  Mr.  Stan¬ 
ton  and  said:  “  I  have  concluded  to  accept  the  duty 
you  offer  me.”  He  briefly  expressed  his  satisfaction 
and  sent  for  the  papers,  chiefly  letters  from  corre¬ 
spondents,  widely  separated,  and  reports,  official  and 
unofficial,  touching  upon  matters  which  pertained  to 
refugees  and  freedmen.  The  clerk  in  charge  brought 
in  a  large,  oblong,  bushel  basket  heaped  with  letters 
and  documents.  Mr.  Stanton,  with  both  hands  hold¬ 
ing  the  handles  at  each  end,  took  the  basket  and  ex¬ 
tended  it  to  me  and  with  a  smile  said :  “  Here,  general, 
here’ s  your  Bureau !  ”  He  told  me  that  I  could  use 
the  officers  of  my  Tennessee  army  for  bureau  assist¬ 
ants  as  far  as  I  wished,  or  submit  recommendations 
for  any  helpers.  He  further  said  that  the  house  of  a 
prominent  senator,  who  had  joined  the  Confederacy, 
situated  at  the  northeast  corner  of  Nineteenth  and  I 
Streets  in  Washington,  was  ready  for  my  immediate 
use  as  an  office. 


208 


Organization  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau 

That  day  Mr.  Stanton  caused  the  following  War 
Department  order  to  be  formally  issued,  entitled 
“  Order  organizing  the  Bureau  of  Refugees,  Freed- 
men,  and  Abandoned  Lands : 

“  By  direction  of  the  President,  Major  General  O.O.  Howard 
is  assigned  to  duty  in  the  War  Department  as  Commissioner  of 
the  Bureau  of  Refugees,  Freedmen,  and  Abandoned  Lands, 
under  the  Act  of  Congress  entitled  ‘  An  Act  to  establish  a 
Bureau  for  the  relief  of  Freedmen  and  Refugees/  to  perform 
the  duties  and  exercise  all  the  rights,  authority,  and  jurisdic¬ 
tion  vested  by  the  Act  of  Congress  in  such  Commissioner. 
General  Howard  will  enter  at  once  upon  the  duties  of  Com¬ 
missioner  specified  in  said  Act.” 

By  other  instructions  made  public  the  same  day 
the  quartermaster  general  was  directed  to  furnish 
suitable  quarters  and  apartments,  and  the  adjutant 
general  of  the  army  to  assign  the  number  of  compe¬ 
tent  clerks  authorized  by  the  law. 

As  soon  as  I  received  the  orders  of  assignment  to 
this  new  duty  I  sent  General  Sherman  a  copy.  It  met 
him  on  his  arrival  at  Dumfries,  Va.,  in  his  march 
from  Richmond  to  Washington;  for  he  came  on  with 
the  troops.  He  wrote  me  a  friendly  letter  that  very 
night  in  which  he  said:  “  I  hardly  know  whether  to 
congratulate  you  or  not,  but  of  one  thing  you  may  rest 
assured,  that  you  possess  my  entire  confidence,  and 
I  cannot  imagine  that  matters  that  involve  the  future 
of  4,000,000  souls  could  be  put  in  more  charitable  and 
more  conscientious  hands.  So  far  as  man  can  do,  I 
believe  you  will;  but  I  fear  you  have  Hercules’  task. 
God  has  limited  the  power  of  man,  and  though  in  the 
kindness  of  your  heart  you  would  alleviate  all  the  ills 
of  humanity,  it  is  not  in  your  power  to  fulfill  one  tenth 
part  of  the  expectation  of  those  who  formed  the  Bu- 

209 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

reau  for  the  Freedmen  and  Eefugees  and  Abandoned 
Estates.  It  is  simply  impracticable.  Yet  you  can 
and  will  do  all  the  good  one  man  may,  and  that  is  all 
you  are  called  on  as  a  man  and  a  Christian  to  do,  and 
to  that  extent  count  on  me  as  a  friend  and  fellow  sol¬ 
dier  for  counsel  and  assistance.” 

Then  the  good  general  went  on  to  discuss  the  sub¬ 
ject  of  reconstruction  with  some  asperity,  but  with  his 
customary  frankness.  One  sentence  shows  how  kindly 
he  felt  toward  the  South :  “  I  do  believe  the  people  of 
the  South  realize  the  fact  that  their  former  slaves 
are  free,  and  if  allowed  reasonable  time,  and  not 
harassed  by  confiscation  and  political  complications, 
will  very  soon  adapt  their  condition  and  interest  to 
their  new  state  of  facts.  Many  of  them  will  sell  or 
lease  their  farms  on  easy  terms  to  their  former  slaves 
and  gradually  the  same  political  state  of  things  will 
result  as  now  exists  in  Maryland,  Kentucky,  and  Mis¬ 
souri.  .  .  . 

“  We  will  be  at  Alexandria  on  Friday,  and  I  know 
you  will  call  to  see  us.”  Delicately  referring  to  his 
own  treatment,  he  said :  “  Don’t  let  the  foul  airs  of 
Washington  poison  your  thoughts  toward  your  old 
comrades  in  arms.” 

At  first,  by  what  was  said  to  me  by  the  Secretary 
of  War,  telling  me  to  use  my  officers  as  I  liked  in  the 
control  of  the  new  Bureau,  I  supposed  I  was  to  con¬ 
tinue  in  command  of  the  Army  and  Department  of 
the  Tennessee,  certainly  till  the  final  muster  out. 

A  few  days  before  the  Grand  Eeview  at  Washing¬ 
ton  General  Sherman  called  me  into  the  office  of  Gen¬ 
eral  Townsend,  the  adjutant  general  of  the  army.  We 
were  there  by  ourselves.  General  Sherman  then  said 
that  he  wanted  me  to  surrender  the  command  of  the 

210 


Organization  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau 

army  to  Logan  before  the  Review.  This  caused  me 
much  feeling,  and  under  the  pressure  of  it  I  replied 
that  I  had  maneuvered  and  fought  this  army  from  At¬ 
lanta  (July  27,  1864),  all  the  way  through.  Sherman 
replied :  “  I  know  it,  but  it  will  be  everything  to  Logan 
to  have  this  opportunity.”  Then,  speaking  very 
gently,  as  Sherman  could,  to  one  near  him  whom  he 
esteemed,  he  said :  “  Howard,  you  are  a  Christian,  and 
won’t  mind  such  a  sacrifice.”  I  answered:  “  Surely, 
if  you  put  it  on  that  ground,  I  submit.” 

He  then  wrote  me  the  following  letter,  which  never 
reached  me  until  forty  years  after  in  Hartford,  Conn. 
It  was  handed  to  me  by  Mr.  Horace  B.  Austin,  in  De¬ 
cember,  1904.  He  had  received  it  from  his  father, 
who  in  turn  had  it  from  a  clerk  in  General  Sherman’s 
office.  The  letter  had  probably  blown  from  the  gen¬ 
eral’s  table,  been  picked  up  and  preserved,  for  it  is 
an  autograph  letter. 

Head  Qrs.  Mil.  Dp.  of  the  Miss. 

In  the  Field,  May  20,  1865. 

Camp  near  Alexandria,  Ga. 

Dear  Gen’l.  :  I  am  this  minute  in  receipt  of  your  communi¬ 
cation  of  this  date  and  I  thank  you  for  your  generous  act.  I 
do  think  it  but  just  to  Logan,  and  notwithstanding  his  modest 
reply  to  us  last  night,  I  know  he  will  prize  the  act  most  highly. 
I  will  deem  it  a  special  favor  and  pleasure  if  you  will  ride  with 
me  at  the  Review  of  Wednesday  next.  I  will  be  at  the  head 
of  the  column  at  9  a.m.  Wednesday,  near  the  Capitol,  and  beg 
you  will  join  me  there.  Your  personal  staff  can  ride  with  mine. 

As  ever  your  friend, 

W.  T.  Sherman,  Major  General. 

The  second  day  of  the  closing  Review,  Wednesday, 
May  24,  1865,  which  so  many  others  have  made 
graphic,  when  the  Western  armies  passed  before  the 

211 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

President  of  the  United  States,  Logan  led  the  Army  of 
the  Tennessee.  Just  before  the  march  began  I  asked 
Sherman  to  allow  me  to  ride  with  his  staff,  but  he 
answered  at  once :  “  No,  Howard,  you  shall  ride  with 
me.”  As  we  were  starting  along  the  Avenue,  feeling 
that  Sherman  ought  to  have  the  proper  isolation  and 
recognition  of  the  people,  I  reined  back  my  horse  to 
move  by  the  side  of  his  chief  of  artillery,  General 
Barry,  when  Sherman  instantly  insisted  that  I  come 
back  and  ride  by  his  side ;  thus,  by  a  bit  of  self-denial 
on  his  part  and  thoughtful  kindness,  he  sought  to  allay 
any  irritation  I  might  feel  on  account  of  what  had 
taken  place. 

Our  Western  armies,  competing  in  a  friendly  way 
with  the  Eastern,  behaved  magnificently  at  that  Re¬ 
view.  The  vast  multitude  of  people  lining  the  streets, 
occupying  every  elevated  stand,  even  covering  the 
roofs  of  buildings  from  the  Capitol  to  the  War  Depart¬ 
ment,  showed  their  appreciation  by  shouts  and  cheer- 
ings  so  abundant  and  so  strong  that  none  of  the  sol¬ 
diers  who  participated  could  ever  forget  that  day  or 
that  magnificent  recognition  of  their  work,  and  with 
pride  participated  ardently  in  the  joy  of  its  completion 
thus  manifested. 

By  Monday  morning,  May  15th,  the  new  Bureau 
was  sufficiently  equipped  for  me  to  issue  a  circular 
letter.  As  this  letter  affords  a  glimpse  of  the  situa¬ 
tion  thus  early  in  my  administration,  I  here  insert 
the  substance  of  it: 

“  In  accordance  with  orders,  I  enter  immediately 
upon  the  duties  of  Commissioner  of  Refugees,  Freed- 
men,  and  Abandoned  Lands. 

“  The  Bureau  contemplated  in  the  order  will  be  lo¬ 
cated  at  the  corner  of  I  and  Nineteenth  Streets.  All 

01  o 

j-j  JL 


Organization  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau 

commissioners,  however  appointed,  who  have  the 
charge  of  freedmen,  are  requested  to  make  a  report, 
as  soon  as  possible,  of  the  character  and  extent  of 
their  work.  The  officers  and  superintendents  in  Vir¬ 
ginia,  South  Carolina,  and  Louisiana,  are  requested 
to  report  direct  to  me  the  amount  of  land  they  may 
have  under  supervision  for  the  use  of  freedmen.  The 
department  commanders  in  insurrectionary  States 
will  do  me  a  favor  by  transmitting  a  copy  of  the  dif¬ 
ferent  orders  issued  by  themselves,  or  by  their  district 
commanders,  relating  to  the  government  and  employ¬ 
ment  of  freedmen. 

“  While  it  shall  be  my  object  to  secure  as  much  uni¬ 
formity  as  possible  in  the  matter  of  employment  and 
instruction  of  freedmen,  I  earnestly  solicit  coopera¬ 
tion  from  all  officers  and  agents  whose  position  or  duty 
renders  it  possible  for  them  to  aid  me.  The  negro 
should  understand  that  he  is  really  free  but  on  no  ac¬ 
count,  if  able  to  work,  should  he  harbor  the  thought 
that  the  Government  will  support  him  in  idleness.” 

As  yet  I  had  no  organization,  properly  so  named, 
outside  of  the  Washington  office,  and  so  by  corre¬ 
spondence  and  officers  sent  out  I  began  to  collect  the 
information  already  much  needed.  This  first  letter 
was  published  over  the  country  extensively,  and  on 
account  of  the  views  in  the  last  paragraph,  brought 
upon  me  many  attacks  from  radical  newspapers  which 
were  friendly  to  the  negro,  indicating  that  they  had 
sentimental  views  in  regard  to  the  relation  of  the 
United  States  to  the  freedmen;  the  logical  result  of 
those  views  was  that  under  my  circular  letter  the  ne¬ 
gro  had  merely  changed  masters  from  the  Southern 
slave  owners  to  the  United  States;  they  implied  that 
the  Government  should  support  the  emancipated  even 

213 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

if  idle.  But  the  enemies  of  free  labor  approved  all 
my  compulsory  language. 

The  Bureau,  standing  between  these  two  extremes 
as  to  the  negro,  entered  upon  its  work  naturally  under 
the  lire  of  hostile  newspapers  and  some  congressional 
criticism  from  both  sides.  Long  before  this  period 
of  experience  I  had  learned  that  I  could  not  suit 
everybody. 

My  own  reason  for  introducing  into  the  circular 
the  paragraph  relating  to  labor  was  that  many  thought 
the  Bureau  would  “  feed  niggers  in  idleness,”  as  they 
expressed  it,  and  I  wished  to  start  right.  There  was 
found  in  Mr.  Stanton’s  basket  evidence  that  the  mili¬ 
tary  authorities  were  then  feeding  immense  groups 
of  refugees  and  freedmen  in  Washington  and  vicinity 
as  well  as  in  the  different  parts  of  the  South  and 
West.  The  daily  issue  then  amounted  to  upward  of 
144,000  rations.  For  the  ensuing  June,  July,  and  Au¬ 
gust,  the  indigent  groups,  though  constantly  shifting 
ground,  were,  in  the  aggregate,  somewhat  increased. 
The  number  of  persons  relieved  by  our  Bureau  commis¬ 
sariat  daily  during  August  was  148,120.  Without 
doubt  many  freedmen  and  poor  whites,  from  the  seem¬ 
ing  helplessness  of  their  condition,  like  pensioners, 
were,  through  this  source,  expecting  a  permanent 
support. 

By  September,  1865,  when  the  Bureau  had  been 
sufficiently  organized  and  at  work  so  as  to  take  entire 
charge  of  all  gratuitous  relief,  by  a  rigid  examination 
of  every  applicant,  by  the  rejection  of  all  who  could 
support  themselves  by  labor,  and  by  the  process  of 
finding  work  for  the  willing,  the  number  assisted  was 
reduced  to  74,951;  and  from  that  time  on,  there  was 
a  constant  reduction. 


214 


Organization  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau 

In  the  process  of  extending  our  organization 
through  the  South,  by  May  18th,  I  was  able  to  recom¬ 
mend  eight  officers  for  assistant  commissioners.  Five 
I  sent  to  the  Southern  fields;  three  were  already  at 
their  posts.  But  as  necessary  changes  were  forced 
upon  ns  by  correspondence,  I  delayed  until  June  13th 
any  formal  announcement  of  these  worthy  assistants. 
Now  I  was  able  to  publish  the  names  of  nine  out  of 
the  ten  allowed,  most  of  whom  had  been  for  some 
time  in  the  field  and  hard  at  work.  The  needs  had 
been  urgent.  These  assistants  were  men  of  high  char¬ 
acter,  and  most  of  them  already  of  national  repute. 
They  were: 

Colonel  Orlando  Brown,  Virginia,  Headquarters  at  Richmond. 

Colonel  Eliphalet  Whittlesey,  North  Carolina,  Headquarters 
at  Raleigh. 

General  Rufus  Saxton,  South  Carolina,  Georgia  and  Florida, 
Headquarters,  Beaufort,  S.  C. 

Colonel  T.  W.  Osborn,  Alabama,  Headquarters,  Mobile. 

Colonel  Samuel  Thomas,  Mississippi,  Headquarters,  Vicks¬ 
burg. 

Chaplain  T.  W.  Conway,  Louisiana,  Headquarters,  New 
Orleans. 

General  Clirfton  B.  Fisk,  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  Head¬ 
quarters,  Nashville,  Tenn. 

General  J.  W.  Sprague,  Missouri  and  Arkansas,  Headquarters, 
St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Colonel  John  Eaton,  District  of  Columbia. 

In  the  above  order,  owing  to  General  Saxton’s  long 
experience  with  the  freedmen,  he  was  given  three 
States.  Colonel  Brown  had  also  been  long  at  work 
for  the  freedmen  in  Virginia,  and  for  this  reason, 
though  I  did  not  personally  know  him,  I  gave  him  the 
preference  for  that  State.  The  same  thing  was  true 

215 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

of  Chaplain  Conway  in  Louisiana.  I  deemed  Louisi¬ 
ana  a  hard  field  for  freedmen’s  affairs  and  was  glad  to 
take  advantage  of  the  services  of  one  who  had  been 
for  months  trying  his  hand  with  all  classes  of  people 
under  Generals  Banks,  Hurlbut,  and  Canby.  Those 
officers  commended  him  highly  to  Mr.  Stanton  and 
myself. 

For  the  home  office  in  Washington  I  had: 

General  W.  E.  Strong,  Inspector  General  for  the  whole  field. 

Colonel  J.  S.  Fullerton,  Adjutant  General. 

Lieutenant  Colonel  Geo.  W.  Bahoch,  Chief  Disbursing  Officer 
and  head  of  the  Subsistence  Distribution. 

Captain  Samuel  L.  Taggart,  Assistant  Adjutant  General. 

Major  William  Fowler,  Assistant  Adjutant  General. 

Captain  J.  M.  Brown,  Assistant  Quartermaster. 

Surgeon  C.  W.  Horner,  Chief  Medical  Officer. 

The  clerks  added  to  the  group  made  the  working 
force.  My  personal  staff  from  the  army  continued 
with  me,  viz.,  Major  EL  M.  Stinson,  Captain  F.  W.  Gil- 
breth,  aids-de-camp;  Captain  A.  S.  Cole  and  Lieuten¬ 
ant  J.  A.  Sladen,  acting  aids-de-camp. 

My  inspector  general  and  aids  were  what  I  called 
“  foot-loose  ” ;  they  were  ready  to  go  to  any  point 
within  our  official  dominion  at  a  moment’s  notice,  to 
bear  important  instructions,  to  settle  a  difficulty,  make 
an  inspection  for  securing  facts  or  seek  essential  co¬ 
operation. 

A  little  later  in  the  season,  and  upon  further  con¬ 
sideration  of  the  law,  I  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
I  was  not  limited  as  at  first  believed  to  ten  assistant 
commissioners;  I  could  increase  the  number  provided 
they  were  army  officers  detailed  for  the  work;  in  fact, 
thus  far,  every  one  had  been  assigned,  by  my  asking, 
from  the  army. 


216 


General  Howard. 

As  Commissioner  of  the  Freedman’s 
Bureau,  1866-73. 


George  W.  Balloch.  General  Eliphalet  Whittlesey. 

Brevet  Brigadier  General  and  Brevet  Brigadier  General  and 
Chief  Disbursing  Officer  Assistant  Commissioner 

Freedman’s  Bureau.  Freedman’s  Bureau. 


Organization  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau 

September  19th  I  announced  three  more  assistant 
commissioners : 

General  Davis  Tillson,  Georgia,  Headquarters,  Augusta. 

General  Wager  Swayne,  Alabama,  Headquarters,  Montgomery. 

General  E.  M.  Gregory,  Texas,  Headquarters,  Galveston. 

Osborn  was  changed  to  Florida  with  headquarters 
at  Jacksonville;  Saxton  was  still  the  assistant  com¬ 
missioner  for  South  Carolina  and  Georgia,  General 
Tillson  being  regarded  at  first  as  an  acting  assistant 

commissioner,  reporting  to  Saxton. 

/ 

From  these  State  centers  were  organized  subdis¬ 
tricts,  more  or  less  in  number  according  to  the  needs. 
There  were  a  few  civil  employees,  but  generally  the 
subagents  (called  by  some  officers  assistant  super¬ 
intendents)  for  given  districts,  were  put  on  duty  di¬ 
rectly  by  the  Secretary  of  War,  being  taken  and  sent 
to  the  work  from  the  nearest  military  organization, 
or  from  the  Veteran  Eeserve  Corps  of  the  army. 
Soon  the  whole  Bureau  force  operating  amounted  to 
upward  of  2,000  officers,  agents,  and  other  employees. 
This  force  covered  the  States  where  the  beneficiaries 
were  to  be  found,  very  much  as  the  Post  Office  Depart¬ 
ment  now  covers  the  country.  I  felt  the  pressure  of 
responsibility  rather  heavy  upon  me,  because  most 
of  my  subassistants  were  necessarily  unknown  to  me 
and  beginning  a  new  business.  The  head  commis¬ 
sioner  in  each  State,  however,  except  Colonels  Thomas 
and  Brown,  and  Chaplain  Conway,  were  personally 
known  to  me.  They  were  men  of  tried  courage,  of 
high  education,  of  well-known  character,  and  pro¬ 
nounced  friends  of  humanity.  Whittlesey,  a  brave 
Christian  gentleman  for  years  on  my  staff  in  the  field, 
had  been  before  the  war  a  college  professor;  Saxton 

217 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

of  the  old  army  had  long  been  distinguished  as  a  friend 
of  the  negroes;  Wager  Swayne,  son  of  Justice  Swayne, 
was  a  promising  young  lawyer  and  a  Christian.  He 
had  exhibited  a  remarkable  decision  of  character  in 
the  army,  was  a  colonel  in  the  volunteers,  and  lost 
a  leg  while  under  my  command.  Osborn,  my  chief 
of  artillery  at  Gettysburg,  was  a  quiet,  unobtrusive 
officer  of  quick  decision  and  of  pure  life.  Samuel 
Thomas,  very  properly  commended  by  other  officers, 
and  of  excellent  character,  had  unusual  executive  abil¬ 
ity.  J.  W.  Sprague  was  distinguished  in  the  Army  of 
the  Tennessee  for  decided  ability  as  a  general,  and 
meritorious  conduct  which  he  showed  at  all  times,  and 
for  his  dignity  of  carriage  and  thought;  and  Gregory 
was  well  reputed  for  the  stand  he  always  took  in  the 
army  in  favor  of  clear-cut  uprightness  of  conduct.  He 
was  so  fearless  of  opposition  or  danger  that  I  sent 
him  to  Texas,  which  seemed  at  the  time  of  his  appoint¬ 
ment  to  be  the  post  of  greatest  peril. 

The  supervision  and  management  of  all  subjects 
relating  to  refugees  and  freedmen  gave  a  broad  scope 
for  planning  and  multitudinous  duties.  When  I 
stepped  into  my  office  and  began  to  examine  the  almost 
endless  communications  heaped  on  my  desk,  I  was  at 
first  appalled.  At  least  thirty  Northern  benevolent 
societies  had  written  letters,  and  now  acknowledged 
me  as  their  ally;  their  numerous  willing  workers  at 
the  front,  they  declared,  regarded  me  as  their  friend 
and  coadjutor.  But  accustomed  from  long  military 
training  to  systematic  thinking  and  acting,  I  quickly 
separated  my  central  force  into  divisions,  and  gave 
to  each  a  name,  put  an  officer  in  charge,  and  set  him  to 
work.  First  came  the  Division  of  Records.  This  fell 
to  the  adjutant  general  of  the  Bureau.  It  had  con- 

218 


Organization  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau 

signed  to  it  all  the  general  correspondence.  It  re¬ 
corded  and  promulgated  the  official  acts  of  the  com¬ 
missioner;  everything  was  included  touching  labor, 
quartermaster’s  and  commissary  supplies,  and  schools. 
I  do  not  believe  people  realize  how  much  of  a  general’s 
success  is  due  to  a  good  and  faithful  adjutant  general. 

The  second  was  the  Land  Division.  Under  this 
head  were  all  the  abandoned  lands,  and  those  in  the 
Government’s  possession  under  the  Confiscation  Act, 
and  all  those  acquired  by  Treasury  tax  sales  or  other¬ 
wise.  An  officer  of  ability  was  here  put  in  charge. 

The  third  division  covered  financial  affairs.  It 
was  not  long  before  a  bonded  officer  was  obliged  to 
give  his  main  attention  to  this  division,  being  desig¬ 
nated  the  chief  disbursing  officer. 

The  fourth,  just  then  very  necessary,  was  the  Medi¬ 
cal  Division,  which  embraced  the  medical  attendance 
of  camps  and  colonies  all  over  the  land,  and  had  super¬ 
vision  of  all  hospitals  and  asylums  where  were  collec¬ 
tions  of  refugees  and  freedmen  with  hosts  of  orphan 
children.  An  army  medical  officer  of  rank  was  placed 
at  the  head  of  this  important  division. 

As  the  work  grew  upon  us  more  divisions  were  in¬ 
stituted,  for  example,  a  fifth  division,  that  for  com¬ 
missary  supplies.  The  financial  officer,  in  addition  to 
his  work  proper,  always  managed  this  division.  A 
sixth  division  followed  for  quartermaster’s  supplies, 
with  an  able  quartermaster  to  direct.  This  issue  of 
transportation  (sending  refugees  and  freedmen  to 
places  where  labor  had  been  found  for  them)  at  one 
time  became  enormous. 

On  May  19th  from  my  office  was  made  the  next  sub¬ 
stantial  public  announcement.  By  this,  assistant  com¬ 
missioners  were  located.  To  them  were  entrusted  the 

219 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

supervision  of  abandoned  lands  and  tlie  control  of  sub¬ 
jects  relating  to  refugees  and  freedmen  within  their 
districts.  All  agents,  however  appointed,  i.  e.,  by 
military  officers.  Treasury  Department  or  voluntary  so¬ 
cieties,  must  report  to  these  assistant  commissioners 
the  condition  of  their  work.  Refugees  and  freedmen 
not  provided  for  should  let  them  know  of  their  wants. 
All  applications  for  relief  by  district  and  post  com¬ 
manders  should  be  referred  to  them  or  their  agents. 
President  Johnson  had  covered,  with  district  and  post 
commanders  and  troops,  the  same  ground  previously 
covered  by  my  officials. 

I  added,  “  It  is  not  the  intention  of  the  Govern¬ 
ment  that  the  Bureau  shall  supersede  the  various  be¬ 
nevolent  organizations  in  the  work  of  administering 
relief.  This  must  still  be  afforded  by  the  benevolence 
of  the  people  through  their  voluntary  societies,  no 
government  appropriations  having  been  made  for  this 
purpos'e.” 

The  assistant  commissioners  were  then  required 
to  look  to  the  benevolent  associations  laboring  in  their 
respective  districts  for  much  of  the  relief  of  these  des¬ 
titute  people.  A  statement  was  solicited  from  the 
active  societies,  giving  names  of  officers,  workers,  and, 
as  far  as  was  practicable,  details  of  their  undertakings. 
I  stated  that  the  demands  for  labor  were  sufficient  to 
afford  employment  to  most  able-bodied  refugees  and 
freedmen ;  that  assistant  commissioners  were  to  intro¬ 
duce  a  practical  system  of  compensated  labor.  First, 
they  must  endeavor  to  remove  prejudices  from  late 
masters  who  are  unwilling  to  employ  their  former  ser¬ 
vants  ;  second,  work  to  correct  false  impressions  some¬ 
times  entertained  by  the  freedmen  that  they  can  live 
without  labor;  third,  strive  to  overcome  a  singular 

220 


Organization  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau 

false  pride  which  shows  certain  almost  helpless  refu¬ 
gees  willing  to  be  supported  in  idleness.  While  we 
provide  for  the  aged,  infirm,  and  sick,  let  us  encour¬ 
age,  or  if  necessary  compel,  the  able-bodied  to  labor 
for  their  own  support.  Wholesome  compulsion  even¬ 
tuated  in  larger  independence. 

The  educational  and  moral  condition  of  these 
people  was  never  forgotten.  The  officers  of  the  Bu¬ 
reau  should  afford  the  utmost  facility  to  benevolent 
and  religious  organizations,  and  to  State  authorities, 
where  they  exist,  in  the  maintenance  of  good  schools. 
Do  everything  possible,  was  my  constant  cry,  to  keep 
schools  on  foot  till  free  schools  shall  be  established 
by  reorganized  local  governments. 

“  In  all  this  work,”  I  announced,  “  it  is  not  my  pur¬ 
pose  to  supersede  the  benevolent  agencies  already  en¬ 
gaged,  but  to  systematize  and  facilitate  them.” 

By  May  22d  the  freedmen  were  largely  at  work, 
cultivating  plantations  and  abandoned  lands ;  but  own¬ 
ers  who  had  been  called  “  disloyal  ”  to  the  Government 
were  already  seeking  recovery  of  their  farms  and  for¬ 
cibly  to  displace  the  freedmen.  So  with  Mr.  Stanton’s 
sanction  I  ordered  that  all  such  land  under  cultivation 
by  the  freedmen  be  retained  in  their  possession  until 
the  growing  crops  should  be  secured  for  their  benefit, 
unless  full  and  just  compensation  were  made  for  their 
labor  and  its  products,  and  for  expenditures. 

May  30th  I  gave  out  another  body  of  instructions. 
The  newly  appointed  assistant  commissioners  not  al¬ 
ready  at  their  posts  were  to  hasten  thither,  acquaint 
themselves  with  their  fields,  and  do  all  in  their  power 
to  quicken  and  direct  the  industry  of  the  refugees  and 
freedmen,  in  order  that  their  communities  might  do 
all  that  could  be  done  for  the  season,  already  so  far 

221 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

advanced,  to  prevent  starvation  and  suffering,  and 
promote  good  order  and  prosperity. 

I  gave  further  rules  for  assistant  commissioners: 
To  reduce  the  distinctive  relief  establishments  as  fast 
as  possible,  many  such  having  been  set  up  in  the  tem¬ 
porary  Confederate  and  Union  barrack  buildings  and 
hospitals  left  from  the  war.  To  make  strong  and  con¬ 
tinuous  efforts  to  make  the  people  self-supporting; 
to  issue  Government  supplies  only  temporarily  to  en¬ 
able  the  destitute  speedily  to  support  themselves;  to 
keep  an  exact  account  of  issues  with  a  community  or  an 
individual  and  hold  the  same  as  a  lien  upon  the  crops. 
Loyal  refugees  who  had  been  driven  from  their  homes 
on  their  return  must  be  protected  from  abuse,  and  the 
calamities  of  their  situation  be  relieved  as  far  as  pos¬ 
sible.  If  destitute  let  them  be  aided  with  transporta¬ 
tion  and  food  while  in  transit  to  their  homes. 

Here  were  words  for  consideration:  Simple  good 
faith  for  which  we  hope  on  all  hands  from  those  con¬ 
cerned  in  the  passing  away  of  slavery  will  especially 
relieve  all  our  assistants  in  the  discharge  of  their 
duties  toward  the  freedmen,  as  well  as  promote  the 
general  welfare.  The  assistant  commissioners  were 
required  everywhere  to  declare  and  protect  the  free¬ 
dom  of  the  late  slaves  as  set  forth  in  the  proclamations 
of  the  President  and  the  laws  of  Congress. 

The  next  paragraph  of  my  public  declaration  was 
just  then  of  first  importance.  It  certainly  caused  the 
settlement  of  thousands  of  troublesome  controversies. 

“In  all  places  where  there  is  an  interruption  of  civil 
law,  or  in  which  local  courts,  by  reason  of  old  codes, 
in  violation  of  the  freedom  guaranteed  by  the  procla¬ 
mation  of  the  President  and  the  laws  of  Congress,  dis¬ 
regard  the  negro’s  right  to  justice  before  the  laws  in 


Organization  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau 

not  allowing  him  to  give  testimony,  the  control  of  all 
subjects  relating  to  refugees  and  freedmen  being  com¬ 
mitted  to  this  Bureau,  the  assistant  commissioners 
will  adjudicate,  either  themselves  or  through  officers 
of  their  appointment,  all  difficulties  arising  between 
negroes  and  whites,  or  Indians,  except  those  in  mili¬ 
tary  service  so  far  as  recognizable  by  military  author¬ 
ity,  and  not  taken  cognizance  of  by  other  tribunals, 
civil  or  military,  of  the  United  States.  .  .  .” 

My  friends  complained  that  the  following  was  leg¬ 
islation.  Yes,  it  was ;  but  absolutely  needed  then : 

“  Negro  must  be  free  to  choose  their  own  employ¬ 
ers,  and  be  paid  for  their  labor.  Agreements  should 
be  free,  bona  fide  acts  approved  by  proper  officers,  and 
their  inviolability  enforced  on  both  parties.”  The  old 
system  of  overseers,  tending  to  compulsory  unpaid 
labor  and  acts  of  cruelty  and  oppression,  was  pro¬ 
hibited.  The  unity  of  families,  and  all  the  rights  of 
the  family  relation,  were  to  be  carefully  guarded.  In 
places  where  the  local  statutes  make  no  provisions  for 
the  marriage  of  persons  of  color,  the  assistant  commis¬ 
sioners  were  authorized  to  designate  officers  who 
should  keep  a  record  of  marriages,  which  might  be 
solemnized  by  any  ordained  minister  of  the  gospel, 
who  was  to  make  a  return  of  the  same,  with  such  items 
as  were  required  for  registration  at  places  designated. 
Registrations  already  made  by  United  States  officers 
were  carefully  preserved. 

No  objection  was  made  to  some  wholesome  regula¬ 
tion,  as  this :  “  Assistant  commissioners  will  instruct 
their  receiving  and  disbursing  officers  to  make  requisi¬ 
tions  upon  all  officers  civil  or  military,  in  charge  of 
funds  and  abandoned  lands  within  their  respective  ter¬ 
ritories,  to  turn  over  the  same  in  accordance  with  the 

223 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

orders  of  tlie  President.  They  will  direct  their  medi¬ 
cal  officers  to  ascertain  the  facts  and  necessities  con¬ 
nected  with  the  medical  treatment  and  sanitary  con¬ 
dition  of  refugees  and  freedmen.  They  will  instruct 
their  teachers  to  collect  the  facts  in  reference  to  the 
progress  of  the  work  of  education,  and  aid  it  with  as 
few  changes  as  possible  to  the  close  of  the  present 
season.” 

During  the  school  vacation  of  the  hot  months, 
special  attention  was  given  to  the  provision  for  the 
next  school  year.  Assistant  commissioners  were  also 
to  aid  refugees  and  freedmen  in  securing  titles  to  land 
according  to  law.  This  could  be  done  for  them  as  in¬ 
dividuals  or  by  encouraging  joint  companies. 

In  closing  my  announcements  I  simply  notified  all 
accounting  officers  that  they  were  subject  to  the  army 
regulations  and  that  all  agents  were  under  military 
jurisdiction;  the  last  clause  called  for  frequent  cor¬ 
respondence,  and  all  the  reports  which  were  demanded 
by  law  to  be  addressed  to  the  commissioner  himself. 

My  proposed  instructions  were  submitted  to  the 
President.  He  favored  them.  Beneath  my  signature 
is  written :  “  Approved  June  2,  1865.  Andrew  John¬ 
son,  President  of  the  United  States.” 

The  foregoing  statements  show  the  principles  and 
methods  under  which  I  began  a  systematic  Govern¬ 
ment  work. 

While  trying  to  familiarize  myself  with  the  whole 
field  so  suddenly  spread  before  me,  with  no  precedents 
to  guide  me,  there  had  come  to  headquarters  during 
the  first  week  such  an  accumulation  of  subjects  relat¬ 
ing  to  the  District  of  Columbia,  to  the  freedmen’s  vil¬ 
lage  near  Arlington,  and  to  the  neighborhood  of  the 
District  of  Columbia  in  Maryland  and  Virginia,  that 

224 


Organization  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau 

it  became  evident  that  a  competent  man  of  consider¬ 
able  experience  was  immediately  needed  to  take  this 
care  and  worry  off  my  shoulders.  Before  acting  I 
paid  a  visit  to  General  Grant,  then  having  his  office  in 
a  building  on  the  southwest  corner  of  Seventeenth  and 
F  Streets  opposite  the  old  Navy  Department,  and  care¬ 
fully  laid  the  subject  before  him.  The  general  said  at 
once:  “  Bring  Colonel  John  Eaton  from  Mississippi 
here.  He’s  your  man.”  Gladly  I  did  that.  Accordingly, 
the  District  of  Columbia,  parts  of  Virginia  and  Mary¬ 
land  and  West  Virginia  were  made  Colonel  Eaton’s 
subdivision.  It  was  treated  like  a  State  with  an  assist¬ 
ant  commissioner  in  charge.  Colonel  Eaton  was  its 
first  assistant  commissioner.  By  his  coming  I  had  the 
advantage  of  his  long  experience  with  the  freedmen 
of  the  Mississippi  Valley  where  he  had  so  much  aided 
General  Grant  during  the  active  war. 

For  some  months  before  the  insurrectionary  States 
were  reorganized  by  Andrew  Johnson,  our  Freedmen’s 
Bureau  officers  in  them  afforded  almost  the  only  au¬ 
thorized  government  in  civil  affairs,  and  so,  as  one 
may  imagine,  the  correspondence  became  more  and 
more  voluminous.  My  instructions  were  usually  given 
in  letters ;  they  were  upon  all  conceivable  subjects,  yet 
the  most  important  and  pressing  were  to  rehabilitate 
labor,  to  establish  the  actual  freedom  of  the  late  slave, 
to  secure  his  testimony  in  the  local  courts  where  they 
were  opened  by  the  whites  as  they  were  here  and  there, 
to  bring  the  freedmen  justice  in  settling  past  contracts 
and  in  making  new  ones,  and  to  give  every  facility 
to  the  Northern  societies  for  their  school  work,  also 
to  raise  from  rents  of  abandoned  property  sufficient 
revenue  to  pay  the  running  expenses.  Happily,  till 
appropriations  came,  the  War  Department,  taking 

225 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

compassion  on  our  poverty,  caused  tlie  quartermaster 
general,  the  commissary  general,  and  the  surgeon  gen¬ 
eral  to  honor  our  requisitions  for  the  needed  supplies 
of  every  sort  which  each  could  furnish.  This  relief 
enabled  benevolent  societies  to  do  more  for  the  schools. 
The  machinery  was  vast.  The  majority  of  the  whites 
in  the  South  were  at  first  very  unfriendly  to  the  Freed- 
men’s  Bureau,  and  the  freed  people  for  the  most  part 
ignorant,  and  so  not  easy  to  comprehend  their  new 
relation.  Nothing  then  became  more  essential  than 
for  the  commissioner  to  clearly  set  forth  and  reiterate 
as  I  did  the  principles  that  would  govern  him  and 
his  subordinates.  Orders  and  instructions  were  pub¬ 
lished  so  that  all  officials  concerned  did  read,  ponder, 
and,  acting  in  unison,  carry  them  into  execution;  and 
surely  they  were  so  expressed  that  all  honest  oppo¬ 
nents  did  know  the  sincerity  of  my  course. 

From  the  start  I  felt  sure  that  the  relief  offered  by 
the  Bureau  to  refugees  and  freedmen  through  the  dif¬ 
ferent  channels,  being  abnormal  to  our  system  of  gov¬ 
ernment,  would  be  but  temporary.  The  first  law,  as 
we  have  seen,  extended  the  Bureau  only  till  one  year 
after  the  war,  and  even  if  our  law  makers  should, 
from  pressing  necessities  during  the  period  of  recon¬ 
struction,  lengthen  its  life,  still  it  was  in  every  way 
most  desirable  to  do  away  with  crutches  as  soon  as  the 
patient  was  able  to  walk  alone.  But  one  source  of  re¬ 
lief  was  imperative,  and  friends  of  freedmen  believed 
that  in  some  form  or  by  some  channel  it  would  be 
made  permanent.  It  was  the  school.  While  we  were 
laboring  hard  to  reduce  the  number  of  freedmen’s 
courts,  hospitals,  asylums,  and  eleemosynary  features 
generally,  we  extended  the  school  operations;  so  that 
before  long  the  schools,  which  were  at  first  in  my  ad- 

226 


Organization  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau 

jutant  general’s  hands,  were  given  an  independent 
place  in  the  office.  A  general  superintendent  of  edu¬ 
cation  was  appointed  who  had  his  representative,  an 
assistant  superintendent,  stationed  at  every  field  head¬ 
quarters  on  the  staff  of  each  State  assistant  commis¬ 
sioner. 

The  Bureau  had  hardly  begun  its  work  when  it 
encountered  unexpected  opposition.  At  first  Presi¬ 
dent  Johnson  was  apparently  very  friendly  to  me,  yet, 
while  Mr.  Stanton  favored  our  strong  educational  pro¬ 
clivities,  the  President  declared  that  the  true  relief 
was  only  in  work.  One  member  of  his  Cabinet,  Secre¬ 
tary  William  Dennison,  said  about  the  time  I  took 
charge : 

“  General,  it  is  feared  that  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau 
will  do  more  harm  than  good.”  These  gentlemen  and 
their  followers  thought  relief  was  in  work  alone.  It 
was  hard  for  them  to  realize  that  the  training  of  the 
mind  and  hand,  particularly  with  negroes,  could  go 
on  together. 

Before  many  days,  when  the  rehabilitation  of  the 
old  State  governments  and  the  appointment  of  gover¬ 
nors  was  under  consideration  in  the  President’s  Cabi¬ 
net,  the  military  possession  of  all  the  late  insurrec¬ 
tionary  States  was  made  complete  by  having  a 
military  department  commander  for  each  State,  sta¬ 
tioned  either  at  the  capital  or  in  one  of  its  largest 
cities.  Each  commander  had  under  him  a  consider¬ 
able  force,  so  that  he  divided  his  State  into  districts 
and  had  an  officer  in  charge  of  each.  Fortunately  for 
the  Bureau  work,  Mr.  Stanton  and  General  Grant,  in 
sympathy  with  each  other  in  the  main,  managed  this 
force,  and  both  sustained  me.  This,  however,  did  not 
prevent  some  friction  in  the  field.  In  places  the  mili- 

227 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

tary  commander  of  a  district  absorbed  the  functions 
of  the  Bureau  agent  and  in  others  would  not  cooperate 
with  him  and  give  him  needed  military  support  in  his 
work.  Some  officers,  hostile  to  negroes,  took  the  part 
of  unfriendly  employers  and  sought  at  times  with  suc¬ 
cess  to  bring  the  Bureau  agent’s  work  into  contempt. 

It  was  not  many  months  before  the  President  him¬ 
self  in  his  contest  with  Congress  began  to  show  a 
steady,  though  underhand,  opposition  to  the  execution 
of  the  Bureau  law. 

Open  resistance  to  the  law  by  the  Chief  Executive 
could  be  impeached,  but  indirect  obstacles  might  be 
thrown  in  the  way  of  its  execution.  To  keep  publish¬ 
ing  charges  against  the  commissioner,  the  assistant 
commissioners,  and  all  other  Bureau  officers  appeared 
to  be  at  one  time  a  settled  policy. 


228 


CHAPTER  XLIX 


THE  ABANDONED  LANDS 

"PERHAPS  nothing  excited  higher  hopes  in  the 

minds  of  those  who  had  for  years  suffered  and 

•/ 

labored  for  emancipation,  than  the  provision  of  law 
that  was  to  open  up  the  abandoned  estates  and  certain 
public  lands  for  prompt  settlement  by  the  newly  eman¬ 
cipated. 

Much  in  vogue  at  the  end  of  the  war  was  that  plan 
of  allotting  abandoned  lands  to  freedmen.  This 
course  the  Government  during  the  latter  part  of  the 
war,  as  we  have  seen,  for  those  lands  along  the  Atlan¬ 
tic  coast  and  in  the  Mississippi  Valley  had  constantly 
followed  first  in  legislative  and  then  in  executive  ac¬ 
tion.  Only  about  one  five-hundredth,  however,  of  the 
entire  amount  of  land  in  the  States  seceding  was 
available;  it  was  all  that  had  ever  been  held  by  the 
United  States  as  abandoned.  Had  this  project  been 
carried  out  and  the  negroes  generally  been  so  settled 
on  farms,  either  more  land  must  have  been  added  or 
the  Bureau  would  only  have  been  able  to  furnish  about 
an  acre  to  a  family.* 

The  law  existing  at  the  inauguration  of  the  Bureau, 
though  imperfect  in  many  respects,  could  hardly  have 
contemplated  such  extensive  action  for  the  drifting 
hordes  of  negroes.  There  was,  however,  some  public 

*  Act  of  July  2,  1864,  and  Act  of  March  3,  1865. 

229 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

wild  land  in  the  South,  which  might  have  answered; 
but  undoubtedly  the  land  intended  by  the  law  makers 
was  that  of  those  Confederates  who  had  been  in  arms 
against  the  National  Government. 

Such  use,  however,  of  even  the  small  amount  which 
was  turned  over  to  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau,  was  nul¬ 
lified  by  the  President’s  pardon,  granted  to  those  who 
had  abandoned  the  lands  in  order  to  engage  in  the 
war ;  orders  of  restoration  to  all  such  immediately  fol¬ 
lowed  the  presentation  of  the  executive  pardon;  this 
was  very  soon  after  I  had  obtained  the  control  of  Bu¬ 
reau  matters. 

Major  William  Fowler,  who  had  served  most  cred¬ 
itably  in  the  One  Hundred  and  Forty-sixth  New  York 
Volunteers  and  later  as  an  assistant  adjutant  general 
in  the  army,  was  the  first  officer  assigned  to  the  charge 
of  my  Land  Division.  A  lawyer  by  profession,  he 
proved  eminently  qualified  for  all  matters  pertaining 
to  Government  lands,  however  acquired.  Fowler’s 
first  official  answer  to  my  inquiries  affords  a  brief 
statement  of  what  real  property  was  under  control 
of  the  Bureau  and  how  it  came  there.  He  said  that 
the  Act  of  Congress,  approved  March  3,  1865,  which 
established  the  Bureau,  intrusted  it  with  the  super¬ 
vision  and  management  of  all  abandoned  lands,  i.  e., 
lands  taken  by  the  Government  while  their  lawful 
owner  was  voluntarily  absent  from  them,  engaged  in 
arms,  or  otherwise  in  aiding  or  encouraging  the  war 
waged  against  the  United  States.  Again,  that  on 
June  2d  the  President  had  ordered  all  officers  of  the 
Government  having  property  of  the  character  speci¬ 
fied  to  turn  it  over  to  the  Bureau.  In  compliance  with 
this  order,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  on  June  27tli 
had  issued  a  circular  letter  directing  his  subordinates 

230 


The  Abandoned  Lands 

who  had  in  their  possession  or  under  their  control  any 
abandoned  or  confiscable  lands,  houses,  or  tenements, 
to  transfer  them  to  some  duly  authorized  officer  of  the 
Freedmen’s  Bureau. 

Further,  that  the  President’s  order  being  obeyed, 
the  greater  portion  of  abandoned  property  in  the  in¬ 
surrectionary  districts  held  by  Treasury  agents,  came 
into  possession  of  the  Bureau;  not  only  abandoned 
lands,  but  all  abandoned  real  property,  except  such  as 
had  been  retained  by  military  authority  for  strictly 
military  purposes. 

The  accompanying  table  will  give  the  amount  in 
our  hands  till  near  the  close  of  the  first  year: 


Amount 

OF  PROPERTY  NOW 

IN  POSSESSION 

Amount  of 

of  Bureau  of  Refugees,  Freedmen,  and 

PROPERTY 

ABANDONED  LANDS. 

RETURNED. 

States. 

Number  of  acres  of  land. 

a 

«4-t  > 
°!>> 

T? 

O  (3 

d 

fe  . 

°  O  >> 

Culti- 

Un  culti- 

Unclas- 

Aggre- 

^  S 

1 1  £ 

1  ° 

§  s 

<v.  *■« 

o  s 

S  <g  o 

?S  V  t. 

vated. 

vated. 

sified. 

gate. 

£  «  & 

£  «  a 

a 

03 

ft 

Georgia  and  South 

Carolina . 

9,364 

50,799 

374,837 

435,000 

398 

384 

Kentucky  and 

Tennessee . 

10,177 

29,072 

25,880 

65,129 

414 

Missouri  and  Ar- 

kansas . 

18,736 

18,736 

72 

Alabama . 

2,116 

2,116 

13 

Virginia . 

2,625 

49,110 

23^918 

75,653 

34 

26,730 

310 

North  Carolina. . .  . 

4,868 

9,207 

22,267 

36,342 

112 

50,029 

287 

Mississippi  and 

Louisiana  (part) 

50,751 

4 

8,525 

59,280 

52 

11,411 

60 

Louisiana . 

62,528 

62,528 

501 

136 

Maryland  and  Vir- 

ginia  (part) . 

2,282 

5,027 

6,497 

13,806 

Total . 

161,331 

143,219 

464,040 

768,590 

1,596 

88,170 

1,177 

By  the  table  we  see  that  we  had  in  December,  1865, 
already  under  cultivation  161,331  acres;  and  that  for 
the  use  of  refugees  and  freedmen  there  were  768,590 

231 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

acres  not  yet  surrendered  by  operation  of  the  Presi¬ 
dent’s  pardons;  but  even  that  early  88,170  acres 
and  1,177  pieces  of  town  property  had  been  restored 
to  former  owners,  thus  largely  reducing  the  income 
of  our  Bureau  from  the  rents,  and  making  a  continued 
possession  of  the  remainder  too  uncertain  to  be  of 
material  value. 

Under  Colonel  Eaton’s  superintendence  and  man¬ 
agement  were  13,806  acres.  Of  this  he  placed  under 
cultivation  as  contemplated  in  the  law  2,282  acres,  of 
which  1,300  acres  were  in  Maryland.  Wheat,  corn, 
and  tobacco  were  the  principal  crops.  The  tenure 
had  already  become  too  doubtful  to  warrant  much  al¬ 
lotment  to  individuals  or  the  giving  of  leases  of  any 
considerable  length.  Thus  the  provisions  of  the  law 
were  plainly  thwarted  by  unexpected  executive  ac¬ 
tion. 

Colonel  Orlando  Brown,  assistant  commissioner  for 
Virginia,  had  separated  his  State  into  districts  and  sub¬ 
districts  about  the  same  in  extent  as  those  of  the  Pres¬ 
ident’s  military  department  commander,  General  Scho¬ 
field.  Brown  obtained  officers  by  detail  from  Schofield 
for  superintendents.  He  had  for  supervision  thirty- 
four  pieces  of  town  property  and  75,653  acres  of  land. 
Of  this  he  had  directly  under  cultivation  by  freedmen 
2,625  acres.  Under  the  President’s  orders  he  had  al¬ 
ready  by  November  30,  1865,  returned  to  former  own¬ 
ers  26,730  acres  and  310  pieces  of  town  property.  In 
the  counties  of  and  near  the  peninsula  of  Virginia  he 
had  been  able  to  try  many  experiments  with  a  view  to 
diminish  the  large  accumulations  of  freedmen  unfor¬ 
tunately  massed  near  the  harbor.  He  had  secured 
almost  an  entire  support  of  these  as  the  result  of  their 
own  labor  during  the  summer. 

232 


c 


The  Abandoned  Lands 

A  colony  of  100  freedmen  for  Liberia  through 
a  colored  agent  was  transferred  from  Lynchburg, 
Va.,  to  Baltimore,  Md.,  of  which  the  old  and  re¬ 
vered  Colonization  Society  took  charge.  On  many  of 
the  old  Virginia  farms  which  their  owners  had  de¬ 
serted,  Colonel  Brown  had  the  freedmen  well  organ¬ 
ized  and  cheerfully  working.  They  had  during  this 
year  of  trial  abundant  diversified  crops. 

Colonel  Whittlesey,  assistant  commissioner  for 
North  Carolina,  had  remained  in  possession  at  the  time 
of  his  first  annual  report  of  112  pieces  of  town  prop¬ 
erty,  and  36,342  acres  besides ;  under  cultivation  4,868 
acres.  The  President’s  pardon  caused  50,029  acres 
and  287  pieces  of  town  property  to  be  restored  to  re¬ 
turning  owners  before  Brown’s  report  was  made. 

Concerning  the  cultivators  of  land,  Colonel  Whittle¬ 
sey  said  that  few  contracts  were  possible  for  long 
periods  from  the  want  of  confidence  between  employ¬ 
ers  and  employees.  The  freedmen,  as  a  rule,  worked 
more  faithfully  for  money  than  for  a  share  of  the 
crops,  for  which  they  must  wait.  Nearly  all  of  the 
farms  transferred  by  Treasury  agents  as  “  aban¬ 
doned  ”  had  already  been,  under  President  Johnson’s 
orders,  restored  to  owners.  The  tenure  of  these  had 
become  too  precarious  to  admit  of  setting  them  apart 
for  refugees  or  freedmen.  Many  freedmen  were  rent¬ 
ing  lands  of  the  owners  and  efforts  were  constantly 
made  by  Whittlesey  to  aid  them  in  this  praiseworthy 
course.  Whenever  he  could  he  secured  lots  and  land 
to  them,  where  they  built  houses,  that  they  might  not 
lose  what  they  had  expended.  The  “  Trent  River  Set¬ 
tlement,”  filled  with  freedmen,  situated  near  New 
Berne,  N.  C.,  was  at  this  time  a  well  ordered,  quiet,, 
healthy  town,  rivaling  New  Berne  in  these  respects. 

233 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

With  reference  to  the  land  in  General  Saxton’s 
States,  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Florida,  I  will 
endeavor  to  explain  the  effect  of  the  President’s  par¬ 
dons  upon  my  own  actions,  and  the  special  tasks 
he  assigned  to  me  in  connection  with  the  abandoned 
and  other  real  property.  In  fact,  my  own  special 
efforts  covered  the  land  question  for  the  southern 
coast. 

In  order  to  establish  a  definite  and  uniform  policy 
relative  to  confiscated  and  abandoned  lands,  as  com¬ 
missioner,  I  issued  a  circular  (July  28th)  quoting  the 
law  and  limiting  and  regulating  the  return  of  the  lands 
to  former  owners;  I  authorized  assistant  commission¬ 
ers  to  restore  any  real  property  in  their  possession 
not  abandoned ;  the  cultivators  were  protected  in  the 
ownership  of  growing  crops  on  land  to  be  restored, 
and  careful  descriptions  were  required  of  such  land, 
and  monthly  records  of  amounts  which  remained  in 
the  possession  of  the  Government.  I  further  directed 
the  assistant  commissioners  to  select  and  set  apart  in 
orders,  with  as  little  delay  as  possible,  as  some  had 
been  already  doing,  such  confiscated  and  abandoned 
property  as  they  deemed  necessary  for  the  immediate 
use  for  the  life  and  comfort  of  refugees  and  freedmen; 
and  we  also  provided  for  rental  or  sale  when  that  was 
possible.  Surely  the  pardon  of  the  President  would 
not  be  interpreted  to  extend  to  the  surrender  of  aban¬ 
doned  or  confiscated  property  which  in  strict  accord¬ 
ance  with  the  law  had  been  “  set  apart  for  refugees 
and  freedmen  ”  or  was  then  in  use  for  the  employment 
and  general  welfare  of  all  such  persons  within  the  lines 
of  national  military  occupation  in  insurrectionary 
States.  Did  not  the  law  apply  to  all  formerly  held  as 
slaves,  who  had  become  or  would  become  free?  This 

234 


The  Abandoned  Lands 


was  the  legal  status  and  the  humane  conclusion.  Then 
naturally  I  took  such  action  as  would  protect  the  bona 
fide  occupants,  and  expected  the  United  States  to  in¬ 
demnify  by  money  or  otherwise  those  Confederates 
who  were  pardoned;  assuredly  we  would  not  succor 
them  by  displacing  the  new  settlers  who  lawfully  were 
holding  the  land. 

My  circular  of  instructions  did  not  please  Presi¬ 
dent  Johnson.  Therefore,  in  order  to  avoid  misunder¬ 
standings  now  constantly  arising  among  the  people 
in  regard  to  abandoned  property,  particularly  after 
the  President  had  set  on  foot  a  systematic  method  of 
granting  to  the  former  holders  a  formal  pardon,  he 
made  me  draw  up  another  circular  worded  better  to 
suit  his  policy  and  submit  it  to  him  before  its  issue. 
But  he,  still  dissatisfied,  and  with  a  totally  different 
object  in  view  than  mine,  had  the  document  redrawn 
at  the  White  House  and  instructed  me  September  12, 
1865,  to  send  it  out  as  approved  by  him,  and  so  with 
reluctance  I  did.  This  document  in  great  part  re¬ 
scinded  former  land  circulars.  Besides  allowing  as¬ 
sistant  commissioners  to  return  all  land  not  aban¬ 
doned,  it  instructed  them  to  return  all  abandoned  lands 
to  owners  who  were  pardoned  by  the  President,  and 
provided  no  indemnity  whatever  for  the  occupants, 
refugees,  or  freedmen,  except  a  right  to  the  growing 
crops. 

In  the  definition  of  confiscated  estates  the  words 
were :  “  Land  will  not  be  regarded  as  confiscated  until 
it  has  been  condemned  and  sold  by  decree  of  the 
United  States  court  for  the  district  in  which  the 
property  may  be  found,  and  the  title  thereto  thus 
vested  in  the  United  States.’’ 

On  the  face  of  it  this  approved  circular  appeared 

235 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

fair  and  right  enough;  but  with  masterly  adroitness 
the  President’s  draft  had  effectually  defeated  the  in¬ 
tention  of  all  that  legislation  which  used  the  aban¬ 
doned  estates  and  the  so-called  confiscated  property; 
that  intention  was  to  give  to  loyal  refugees  and  freed- 
men  allotments  of  and  titles  to  land.  In  Virginia, 
a  considerable  amount  had  been  libeled  and  was  about 
to  be  sold,  when  Mr.  Stanton  considerately  suspended 
the  sales,  that  these  lands  might  be  turned  over  more 
directly  to  the  Bureau  for  the  benefit  of  the  freedmen. 
I  insisted  that  these  lands,  condemned  for  sale,  though 
not  actually  sold,  were  already  the  property  of  the 
Government;  therefore,  I  made  objection  to  the  Presi¬ 
dent  against  the  insertion  of  the  word  “  sold  ”  into  the 
definition  of  confiscated  property;  but  after  reference 
to  the  attorney  general,  the  President  decided  ad¬ 
versely  to  me  and  so  the  word  “  sold  ”  was  inserted 
in  the  definition  that  was  published  in  the  order.  This 
was  what  caused  the  return  to  former  owners  of  all 
property  where  sales  had  been  suspended  and  never 
consummated.  It  was  further  strongly  recommended 
by  me  to  the  President  that  all  men  of  property  to 
whom  he  was  offering  pardon  should  be  conditioned 
to  provide  a  small  homestead  or  something  equivalent 
to  each  head  of  family  of  his  former  slaves ;  but  Presi¬ 
dent  Johnson  was  amused  and  gave  no  heed  to  this 
recommendation.  My  heart  ached  for  our  benefici¬ 
aries,  but  I  became  comparatively  helpless  to  offer 
them  any  permanent  possession. 

When  the  former  owner  had  not  as  yet  been  par¬ 
doned  the  burden  was  after  this  time  put  upon  my 
officers  to  prove  that  property  had  ever  been  volun¬ 
tarily  abandoned  by  a  disloyal  owner.  I  soon  saw 
that  very  little,  if  any,  had  been  confiscated  by  formal 

236 


The  Abandoned  Lands 


court  decision;  so  that  wholesale  pardons  in  a  brief 
time  completed  the  restoration  of  the  remainder  of  our 
lands ;  all  done  for  the  advantage  of  the  late  Confeder¬ 
ates  and  for  the  disadvantage  and  displacement  of  the 
freedmen.  Very  many  had  in  good  faith  occupied  and 
cultivated  the  farms  guaranteed  to  them  by  the  pro¬ 
vision  and  promise  of  the  United  States. 

My  heart  was  sad  enough  when  by  constraint  I 
sent  out  that  circular  letter;  it  was  chagrined  when 
not  a  month  later  I  received  the  following  orders  is¬ 
sued  by  President  Johnson: 

“  Whereas  certain  tracts  of  land,  situated  on  the 
coast  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  and  Florida,  at  the 
time  for  the  most  part  vacant,  were  set  apart  by  Ma¬ 
jor  General  W.  T.  Sherman’s  special  field  order  No. 
15  for  the  benefit  of  refugees  and  freedmen  that  had 
been  congregated  by  the  operations  of  the  war,  or  had 
been  left  to  take  care  of  themselves  by  their  former 
owners ;  and  whereas  an  expectation  was  thereby 
created  that  they  would  be  able  to  retain  possession 
of  said  lands ;  and  whereas  a  large  number  of  the  for¬ 
mer  owners  are  earnestly  soliciting  the  restoration  of 
the  same,  and  promising  to  absorb  the  labor  and  care 
for  the  freedmen: 

“  It  is  ordered:  That  Major  General  Howard,  Com¬ 
missioner  of  the  Bureau  of  Refugees,  Freedmen  and 
Abandoned  Lands,  proceed  to  the  several  above-named 
States  and  endeavor  to  effect  an  agreement  mutually 
satisfactory  to  the  freedmen  and  the  land  owners,  and 
make  report.  And  in  case  a  mutual  satisfactory  ar¬ 
rangement  can  be  effected,  he  is  duly  empowered  and 
directed  to  issue  such  orders  as  may  become  necessary, 
after  a  full  and  careful  investigation  of  the  interests 
of  the  parties  concerned.”  Why  did  I  not  resign? 

237 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

Because  I  even  yet  strongly  hoped  in  some  way  to  be¬ 
friend  the  freed  people. 

Obeying  my  instructions  I  reached  Charleston,  S. 
C.,  October  17,  1865.  General  Saxton’s  headquarters 
were  then  in  that  city.  I  had  a  conference  with  him 
and  with  many  of  the  land  owners  concerned.  The 
truth  was  soon  evident  to  me  that  nothing  effective 
could  be  done  without  consulting  the  freedmen  them¬ 
selves  who  were  equally  interested.  Therefore,  ac¬ 
companied  by  several  officers  and  by  Mr.  William 
Whaley,  who  represented  the  planters,  I  went  to  Edisto 
Island,  and  met  the  freedmen  of  that  vicinity  who 
came  together  in  a  large  meeting  house.  The  audito¬ 
rium  and  the  galleries  were  filled.  The  rumor  preced¬ 
ing  my  coming  had  reached  the  people  that  I  was 
obliged  by  the  President’s  orders  to  restore  the  lands 
to  the  old  planters,  so  that  strong  evidence  of  dissat¬ 
isfaction  and  sorrow  were  manifested  from  every  part 
of  the  assembly.  In  the  noise  and  confusion  no  prog¬ 
ress  was  had  till  a  sweet-voiced  negro  woman  began 
the  hymn  “  Nobody  knows  the  trouble  I  feel — Nobody 
knows  but  Jesus,”  which,  joined  in  by  all,  had  a  quiet¬ 
ing  effect  on  the  audience.  Then  I  endeavored  as 
clearly  and  gently  as  I  could  to  explain  to  them  the 
wishes  of  the  President,  as  they  were  made  known  to 
me  in  an  interview  had  with  him  just  before  leaving 
Washington.  Those  wishes  were  also  substantially 
embodied  in  my  instructions.  My  address,  however 
kind  in  manner  I  rendered  it,  met  with  no  apparent 
favor.  They  did  not  hiss,  but  their  eyes  flashed  un¬ 
pleasantly,  and  with  one  voice  they  cried,  “  No,  no !  ” 
Speeches  full  of  feeling  and  rough  eloquence  came 
back  in  response.  One  very  black  man,  thick  set  and 
strong,  cried  out  from  the  gallery:  “Why,  General 

238 


The  Abandoned  Lands 


Howard,  why  do  you  take  away  our  lands?  You  take 
them  from  us  who  are  true,  always  true  to  the  Govern¬ 
ment  !  You  give  them  to  our  all-time  enemies !  That 
is  not  right !  ” 

At  my  request,  the  assembly  chose  three  of  their 
number,  and  to  them  I  submitted  with  explanations 
the  propositions  to  which  the  land  owners  were  will¬ 
ing  to  subscribe.  Then  I  faithfully  reiterated  to  the 
whole  body  the  conditions  of  the  existing  tenure  under 
our  President’s  action,  they  having  no  absolute  title 
but  simply  occupying  the  homesteads.  I  urged  them 
to  make  the  best  terms  they  could  with  the  holders  of 
the  titles.  These  simple  souls  with  singular  unanim¬ 
ity  agreed  to  leave  everything  to  my  decision  with 
reference  to  restorations  to  be  made,  and  also  the  con¬ 
ditions  attending  them.  But  their  committee  after 
considering  all  the  matters  submitted  to  them  said 
that  on  no  condition  would  the  freedmen  work  for 
their  late  owners  as  formerly  they  did  under  over¬ 
seers;  but  if  they  could  rent  lands  from  them,  they 
would  consent  to  all  the  other  arrangements  proposed. 
Some  without  overseers  would  work  for  wages;  but 
the  general  desire  was  to  rent  lands  and  work  them. 

At  last,  to  be  as  fair  to  all  parties  as  possible,  I 
constituted  a  board  of  supervisors  in  which  the  Gov¬ 
ernment,  the  planters,  and  the  freedmen  were  equally 
represented.  This  board  was  to  secure  and  adjust 
contracts  and  settle  cases  of  dispute  and  controversy. 
The  freedmen  and  the  planter  could  form  contracts 
for  rental  or  for  labor  with  wages  as  elsewhere;  but 
before  the  latter  could  do  so  his  land  must  be  formally 
restored.  To  effect  this  restoration,  there  was  drawn 
up  for  his  signature  an  obligation  in  which  he  prom¬ 
ised  substantially:  To  leave  to  the  freedmen  the  ex- 

239 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

isting  crop ;  to  let  them  stay  at  tlieir  present  homes  so 
long  as  the  responsible  freedmen  among  them  would 
contract  or  lease;  to  take  proper  steps  to  make  new 
contracts  or  leases,  with  the  proviso  that  freedmen 
who  refused  would  surrender  any  right  to  remain  on 
the  estate  after  two  months ;  the  owners  also  engaged 
to  interpose  no  objections  to  the  schools;  all  the  obli¬ 
gations  to  hold  for  only  one  year  unless  renewed. 

At  the  time,  I  placed  in  charge  of  the  whole  adjust¬ 
ment  Captain  A.  P.  Ketclium,  One  hundred  and  Twen¬ 
ty-eighth  United  States  Colored  Infantry,  acting  as¬ 
sistant  adjutant  general,  an  officer  of  acknowledged 
acumen  and  conscientiousness.  He  was  in  this  busi¬ 
ness  my  representative  with  power  to  extend  the  ar¬ 
rangement  above  given  to  all  estates  embraced  in  Gen¬ 
eral  Sherman’s  original  provision  in  South  Carolina, 
Georgia,  and  Florida. 

Upon  our  return  to  Charleston,  I  sent  Mr.  Stanton 
this  dispatch: 

I  met  several  hundred  of  the  colored  people  of  Edisto  Is¬ 
land  to-day,  and  did  my  utmost  to  reconcile  them  to  the  sur¬ 
render  of  their  lands  to  the  former  owners.  They  will  submit, 
but  with  evident  sorrow,  to  the  breaking  of  the  promise  of 
General  Sherman’s  order.  The  greatest  aversion  is  exhibited 
to  making  contracts,  and  they  beg  and  plead  for  the  privilege 
of  renting  or  buying  land  on  the  island.  My  task  is  a  hard  one 
and  I  am  convinced  that  something  must  be  done  to  give  these 
people  and  others  the  prospect  of  homesteads. 

Six  days  later,  on  October  25th,  Mr.  Stanton  replied,  his 
message  reaching  me  at  Mobile,  Ala.  He  telegraphed:  “I  do 
not  understand  that  your  orders  require  you  to  disturb  the 
freedmen  in  possession  at  present,  but  only  ascertain  whether 
a  just  mutual  agreement  can  be  made  between  the  pardoned 
owners  and  the  freedmen;  and  if  we  can,  then  carry  it  into 
effect.” 


240 


The  Abandoned  Lands 


The  very  rumor  of  my  coming  disturbed  them.  I 
answered  Mr.  Stanton  that  I  had  set  Captain  Ketchum 
to  restore  lands  to  the  pardoned,  provided  they  signed 
the  obligatory  instrument  which  I  have  described ;  that 
this  was  as  nearly  satisfactory  to  all  parties  as  any¬ 
thing  that  I  could  devise.  I  had  given  the  freedmen 
a  supervising  board  to  guard  their  interests  during 
the  transition. 

After  the  work  under  the  President’s  instructions 
extending  as  far  as  Mobile  had  been  finished,  I  re¬ 
turned  to  Washington  November  18th,  and  submitted 
an  account  of  the  journey  to  Mr.  Stanton.  These 
were  my  closing  words : 

“  It  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  reconcile  the  conflict¬ 
ing  interests  now  arising  with  regard  to  lands  that 
have  been  so  long  in  possession  of  the  Government 
as  those  along  the  coast  of  South  Carolina,  Georgia, 
and  Florida.  I  would  recommend  that  the  attention 
of  Congress  be  called  to  the  subject  of  this  report  at 
as  early  a  day  as  possible,  and  that  these  lands  or  a 
part  of  them  be  purchased  by  the  United  States  with 
a  view  to  the  rental  and  subsequent  sale  to  the 
freedmen.” 

Congress  soon  had  the  situation  clearly  stated,  but 
pursued  its  own  plan  of  reconstruction,  as  did  the 
President  his  own,  regardless  of  such  minor  justice 
as  making  good  to  thousands  of  freedmen  that  promise 
of  land  which  was  at  that  time  so  essential  to  their 
maintenance  and  their  independence. 

The  assistant  commissioner  for  Louisiana  was 
twice  changed  during  the  year  1865.  General  Ab¬ 
salom  Baird  was  by  some  circumstance  delayed  from 
taking  charge.  I  had  my  adjutant  general,  Fullerton, 
sent  there  to  act  temporarily  as  assistant  commis- 

241 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

sioner  till  Baird’s  arrival.  Louisiana  showed  for  the 
year  62,528  acres  of  abandoned  land  under  cultivation 
by  freedmen  and  501  pieces  had  been  given  back  to 
owners ;  thus  restoration  went  on.  In  New  Orleans 
alone  there  was  $800,000  worth.  The  large  number 
of  estates  abandoned  and  supposed  to  be  confiscated 
in  Louisiana,  which  were  turned  over  to  us  by  the 
Treasury  Department,  had  happily  afforded  means  of 
raising  considerable  revenue,  indeed,  more  than  any 
other  State.  This  revenue  was  now  greatly  dimin¬ 
ished  and  soon  would  be  extinguished  by  our  being 
so  obliged  to  give  up  possession.  There  were  now  in 
Louisiana  four  large  “  home  colonies,”  where  were 
supported  great  numbers  of  the  aged  and  infirm.  But 
these  were  not  fully  self-supporting;  still,  there  were 
good  farms  connected  with  each,  faithfully  worked 
by  freedmen. 

The  Mississippi  assistant  commissioner,  Colonel 
Thomas,  for  1865,  had  worked  enough  farms  to  raise 
a  sufficient  revenue  for  Bureau  purposes  within  that 
State.  From  every  part  of  Mississippi  he  showed 
that  freedmen  desired  to  have  homes  of  their  own; 
that  they  were  willing  enough  to  work  places  which 
they  held  by  rent,  or  which  they  felt  were  secured  to 
them  for  their  use.  The  freedmen  working  land  as¬ 
signed  them  at  Davis  Bend,  De  Soto  Point,  and  at 
Washington  near  Natchez,  had  labored  hard  and  did 
well.  At  least  10,000  bales  of  cotton  were  raised  by 
these  colonists.  They  had  gardens  and  corn  enough 
to  furnish  food  for  themselves  and  for  their  stock 
for  the  year.  Thomas  wrote:  “  A  more  industrious, 
energetic  body  of  citizens  does  not  exist  than  can  be 
seen  now  at  the  colonies.” 

In  other  parts  of  Mississippi,  Thomas  found  fine 

242 


The  Abandoned  Lands 


crops  of  grain;  the  negroes  were  at  home  and  work¬ 
ing  quietly.  They  had  generally  contracted  with  their 
old  masters,  and  all  seemed  to  have  accepted  the 
change  from  slavery  to  freedom  without  a  shock. 
Thomas  believed  that  all  that  was  necessary  for  peace 
and  prosperity  was  kind  treatment,  respect  for  the 
laborer’s  rights,  and  prompt  payment  as  agreed  upon 
in  their  contracts. 

In  Alabama,  Texas,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee  there 
were  only  small  amounts  of  abandoned  land  in  the  pos¬ 
session  of  the  Bureau,  and  its  operations  under  the 
Land  Division  were  less  in  amount  than  in  other 
directions. 

As  the  year  1865  was  drawing  to  a  close,  I  saw 
plainly  that  this  work  of  restoring  lands  and  providing 
reasonably  for  the  occupants,  arranging  things  prop¬ 
erly  with  the  land  owners  or  otherwise,  would  demand 
time;  so  I  set  forth  the  facts  concerning  the  lands  in 
my  communication  to  Congress.  I  wrote  that  it  would 
require  at  least  a  year  more  from  January  1,  1866,  to 
bring  to  a  close  the  Land  Division,  whatever  disposition 
might  be  made  of  the  lands.  The  faith  of  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  having  been  pledged  as  to  leases  and  con¬ 
tracts  for  tbe  coming  year,  it  would  be  unwise  to  com¬ 
mit  them  to  any  State  agencies.  Again,  I  urged  that 
to  render  any  portion  of  the  freedmen  able  to  take 
advantage  of  the  homestead  law  in  Florida,  Louisiana, 
Arkansas,  or  in  other  States  where  there  were  public 
lands,  aid  must  be  furnished  the  settlers  in  the  way  of 
transportation,  temporary  food,  and  shelter  and  im¬ 
plements  of  husbandry.  To  render  this  relief  offered 
effective,  more  time  than  our  present  law  offered 
would  be  essential. 

Prior  to  the  President’s  fuller  action  in  the  interest 

243 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

of  the  land  owners,  my  instructions  had  been  clearly 
defined,  namely,  to  return  estates  to  those  only  who 
could  show  constant  loyalty,  past  as  well  as  present — 
a  loyalty  which  could  be  established  by  the  production 
of  an  oath  of  allegiance,  or  amnesty,  or  other  evidence. 
As  the  Bureau  held  property  by  authority  of  an  Act 
of  Congress  for  certain  definite  purposes,  I  had  pre¬ 
sumed  and  believed  that  this  tenure  would  continue 
until  those  purposes  were  accomplished;  that  such 
property  must  be  surrendered  by  us  only  when  it  was 
made  evident  that  our  possession  and  control  of  it 
was  not  proper.  But  the  positive  adverse  action  of 
President  Johnson  and  the  non-action  of  Congress 
caused  a  complete  reversal  of  the  Government’s  gen¬ 
erous  provision  for  the  late  slaves.  Thus  early  offi¬ 
cers  and  agents  were  constrained  to  undertake  to  make 
bricks  without  straw. 

After  years  of  thinking  and  observation  I  am  in¬ 
clined  to  believe  that  the  restoration  of  their  lands  to 
the  planters  proved  for  all  their  future  better  for  the 
negroes. 


244 


CHAPTER  L 


COURTS  FOR  FREEDMEN;  MEDICAL  CARE  AND  PROVISION 

FOR  ORPHANS 

T  TPON  their  appointment  the  assistant  commission- 
^  ers  of  freedmen  were  enjoined  to  use  every 
proper  means  to  quicken  the  industries  in  the  States 
under  their  charge.  They  held  indeed  a  broad  com¬ 
mission.  Negroes  were  declared  in  my  letters  sent 
them  to  be  free  to  choose  employers  and  receive  pay 
for  their  labor.  The  old  system  of  overseers  was 
abolished.  Cruelty  and  oppression  were  to  be  sup¬ 
pressed.  It  was  easy  to  write  and  publish,  but  hard 
to  carry  such  orders  into  execution. 

Owing  to  the  almost  universal  disturbance  of  labor 
through  eleven  or  twelve  States  by  the  war  and  conse¬ 
quent  emancipation,  well-meaning  planters  and  farm¬ 
ers,  and  employers  of  negroes  generally  were  much 
puzzled  as  to  the  best  method  to  put  industries  in  mo¬ 
tion.  Fortunately,  as  we  have  seen,  there  had  already 
been  before  the  Bureau  began  its  trials,  considerable 
practical  experience  with  freedmen  who  did  work  un¬ 
der  contract  or  with  leases.  Yet  these  experiments 
came  to  the  knowledge  in  those  days  of  but  few  South¬ 
ern  men.  From  all  directions  anxious  employers 
poured  in  letters  upon  me  urging  me  to  fix  prices  and 
enable  the  employer  to  exercise  power,  in  one  way  or 
another,  over  the  laborer.  The  majority  did  not  be- 

245 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

lieve  the  negro  would  work  unless  under  compulsion. 
One  prominent  gentleman  came  all  the  way  from 
Louisiana  to  Washington.  He  had  been  delegated  by 
a  score  or  more  of  planters  to  visit  me  and  show  a 
schedule  of  prices  which  they  had  drawn  up  as  liberal 
as  they  could  make  them  and  live;  he  asked  for  a 
formal  approval. 

Much  to  the  astonishment  and  chagrin  of  the  sug- 
gestors  and  their  agent,  the  statement  made  and  re¬ 
iterated  by  me  that  wages  must  be  free  was  adhered 
to,  and  that  they  were  to  be  regulated  by  the  assent 
of  both  p>arties  to  a  contract  verbal  or  written,  or  ad¬ 
justed  from  the  common  market  value.  I  repeatedly 
cautioned  my  officers  against  any  substitute  whatever 
for  slavery.  The  assistant  commissioners  ably  sec¬ 
onded  these  efforts.  They  left  wages  to  be  regulated 
by  demand  and  agreement.  They  found  that  mini¬ 
mum  rates,  when  published,  sometimes  protected  the 
freedmen;  but  it  was  difficult  after  public  notice  to 
ever  advance  above  the  minimum.  If  you  fixed  rates 
for  able-bodied  men,  you  did  not  properly  discriminate 
with  regard  to  differences  of  skill  and  ability  in  a 
given  class. 

In  some  communities,  finding  the  plantation  neg¬ 
roes  inclined  to  leave  their  homes  and  go  to  the  cities, 
villages,  and  military  posts  with  no  good  prospect  of 
work  or  support,  the  agents  at  hand  were  directed  to 
adopt  a  system  like  that  of  the  ordinary  intelligence 
office;  they  first  used  every  effort  to  find  good  places 
of  employment  where  the  idle  could  find  support,  and 
then  sent  them  there.  Industrial  farms  and  industrial 
schools,  established  by  the  benevolent  societies,  helped 
absorb  this  class.  Government  farms,  those  that  had 
been  set  apart  or  allotted,  served  the  purpose  in  vari- 

246 


Courts  for  Freedmen 


ous  places  from  Maryland  to  Louisiana  to  distribute 
and  absorb  the  surplus  population. 

Yet,  after  all  such  provision,  we  found  many  au¬ 
thentic  complaints  of  idleness  for  which  no  remedy 
seemed  to  exist.  At  last  I  urged  for  such  freedmen 
the  use  of  the  vagrant  laws  which  applied  to  whites, 
leaving  out  the  whipping  post  which  had  still  been 
retained  in  their  law  books  for  minor  offenses  in  some 
of  the  States.  Naturally  enough,  where  exaggerated 
stories  were  always  rife,  a  rumor  was  circulated 
among  the  freedmen  quite  generally  that  they  would 
finally  get  somehow  all  the  lands  of  disloyal  owners. 
The  wording  of  the  Bureau  law  unfortunately  fostered 
the  idea.  Were  not  forty  acres  to  be  set  apart  to 
every  male  citizen,  whether  refugee  or  freedman? 
Soldiers,  colored  and  white,  magnified  the  report  till 
the  belief  became  prevalent  that  the  Government  in¬ 
tended,  at  the  Christmas  of  1865,  to  effect  this  division. 
Speculators  who  desired  to  cheapen  the  lands  added  to 
the  tales  their  own  exaggerations.  The  result  was  that 
toward  the  autumn  great  numbers  of  freedmen  became 
averse  to  making  any  contracts  whatever  with  prop¬ 
erty  holders,  verbal  or  written,  for  the  coming  year. 

Our  officers  and  agents  at  once  set  themselves  to 
disabuse  the  minds  of  the  working  people  of  impres¬ 
sions  so  detrimental  to  their  interests,  entreating  them 
to  hasten  and  get  places  of  support,  and  then  aiding 
them  to  obtain  fair  wages.  But  even  the  correction  of 
false  reports  did  not  always  produce  willingness  to 
contract.  And,  indeed,  I  felt  that  the  system  we  were 
obliged  to  adopt  was  checking  individuality,  or  not 
sufficiently  encouraging  self-dependence;  but  a  little 
wholesome  constraint  could  not  in  many  cases  be 
avoided. 


247 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

In  my  first  published  instructions  on  the  subject 
I  said  that  no  assistant  commissioner  or  agent  was 
authorized  to  tolerate  compulsory,  unpaid  labor,  ex¬ 
cept  for  the  legal  punishment  of  crime.  Suffering 
may  result  from  this  course  to  some  extent,  but  suffer¬ 
ing  is  preferred  to  slavery,  and  is  to  some  degree  the 
necessary  consequence  of  events. 

I  was  confident  that  the  education  unhindered  in 
books,  and  from  experience,  would,  in  time,  work  won¬ 
ders,  stimulating  individual  enterprise.  The  people, 
however,  were  never  compelled  to  make  contracts. 
When  farmers,  traders,  or  mechanics  preferred,  they 
could  make  their  bargains  without  record,  but  the  in¬ 
terest  springing  from  the  employer’s  necessity  to  have 
some  security  for  the  laborer  to  remain  the  year  out, 
and  the  need  of  each  freedman  to  have  some  guaranty 
for  his  wages  rendered  it  easier  for  the  Bureau  agent 
to  introduce  written  contracts.  Certainly  this  was  true 
wherever  sufficient  daylight  had  penetrated  to  make 
men  see  that  slavery  really  had  been  abolished. 

Vigilance  and  effort  the  first  season  gave  good 
results  in  those  communities  in  which  the  people  most 
quickly  recognized  the  negro  as  a  free  man.  In  Vir¬ 
ginia  and  North  Carolina  the  vast  majority  of  freed- 
men  were  already  well  at  work.  Partnerships  and  joint 
stock  companies  with  capital  had  come  in  and  greatly 
helped  us.  They  hired  the  men  as  they  would  have 
done  elsewhere,  treated  the  workmen  well,  and  paid 
promptly. 

In  South  Carolina  and  Georgia  the  first  results  of 
free  labor  efforts  were  not  so  encouraging.  I  wrote 
after  a  visit  to  Charleston  that,  as  the  department  com¬ 
mander  and  assistant  commissioner  were  both  at 
Charleston  trying  to  cooperate,  more  complete  order 

248 


Courts  for  Freedmen 


and  confidence  would  come,  and  that  the  arrival  in 
Georgia  of  General  Davis  Tillson,  the  new  acting  assist¬ 
ant  commissioner,  in  the  month  of  September  had 
produced  a  favorable  change  in  that  State.  He  was 
at  the  State  capital  during  the  session  of  the  State  Re¬ 
construction  Convention,  and  explained  to  its  members 
the  purpose  of  the  Bureau,  and  corrected  false  impres¬ 
sions,  especially  touching  the  settlement  of  land  and 
labor.  He  and  the  department  commander  for  Geor¬ 
gia  began  and  continued  to  work  heartily  together, 
and,  but  for  the  extreme  poverty  in  some  sections, 
were  introducing  stability  and  continued  industry. 

Florida  was  quiet  and  orderly  enough.  There  had 
been  but  few  acts  of  violence ;  but  the  freedmen  there 
hardly  as  yet  realized  that  they  were  free.  The  as¬ 
sistant  commissioner  had  not  been  long  enough  in  the 
State,  nor  had  he  sufficient  assistants  to  make  his  or¬ 
ganization  felt;  but  he  had,  nevertheless,  in  a  few  coun¬ 
ties  made  a  good  beginning.  Here  by  his  action  the 
old  compulsory  overseer  system  had  been  effectually 
stopped. 

General  Wager  Swayne,  assistant  commissioner  for 
Alabama,  found  there  a  failure  of  the  crops;  it  was 
owing  to  a  drought  and  to  the  excitement  of  some  late 
military  raids  through  the  State;  he  feared  great  dis¬ 
tress  of  both  whites  and  blacks  during  the  coming  win¬ 
ter  ;  but  Swayne,  always  wise,  carefully  matured  plans 
for  effective  relief.  For  example:  In  such  counties 
as  most  needed  assistance  he  had  organized  some  col¬ 
onies  on  good  farms  where  shelter  and  employment 
were  at  once  given  to  the  most  needy  and  which  in 
time  he  expected  to  become  self-supporting.  But  his 
best  work  was  the  excellent  provision  he  was  making 
for  contracts  and  leases  for  the  coming  year.  The 

249 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

department  commander  and  the  new  governor  ap¬ 
pointed  by  President  Johnson  were  cordially  cooper¬ 
ating  with  him.  In  the  steadiness  of  labor,  and  in  the 
kind  relations  of  laborers  and  property  holders,  Ala¬ 
bama  at  that  time  was  in  advance  of  other  States. 

It  appeared  by  all  accounts  from  Louisiana  that  the 
system  of  free  labor  was  also  succeeding  there,  espe¬ 
cially  in  every  county  or  parish  where  the  white  men 
were  disposed  to  give  it  a  fair  trial,  and  better  where 
both  parties  would  at  all  fulfill  their  contracts.  The 
best  outlook  was  on  the  plantations  where  employers 
paid  cash  at  short  intervals.  Prior  to  a  change  of  offi¬ 
cers  which  I  brought  about  in  that  State,  from  lack 
of  mutual  confidence  the  military  commander,  the  new 
civil  authorities,  and  the  assistant  commissioner  were 
working  all  the  while  at  cross  purposes,  but  by  Sep¬ 
tember,  1865,  there  was  harmony.  Matters  at  once 
took  better  form  for  the  interests  of  both  employers 
and  employed.  Old  contracts  were  happily  fulfilled 
and  new  ones  extensively  made  for  the  ensuing  season. 

General  Fisk,  the  assistant  commissioner  for  Ten¬ 
nessee  and  Kentucky,  at  first  found  his  most  pressing 
duty  to  disseminate  the  indigent  masses  of  refugees 
and  freedmen  that  the  war  had  brought  together.  In 
both  States  he  had,  in  his  efforts  among  the  planters, 
remarkable  success.  Tennessee  had  early  found  a  re¬ 
newal  of  public  confidence,  and  the  planters  of  that 
State  had  quickly  absorbed  the  labor  found  in  their 
midst. 

General  Sprague  in  Missouri  and  Arkansas,  too, 
except  in  impoverished  districts,  had  readily  found 
employment  for  workingmen,  white  or  black.  By  the 
close  of  1865,  he  believed  that  the  active  demand  for 
labor  was  in  a  great  measure  settling  the  condition 

250 


Courts  for  Freedmen 


of  society.  The  negroes  were  industriously  cultiva¬ 
ting  the  cotton  fields,  having  employment  and  good 
wages.  The  contracts  made  were  for  the  most  part 
carried  out.  Sprague,  of  a  manly  and  popular  turn 
himself,  had  secured  the  cooperation  of  the  military 
commanders  and  the  provisional  governor  of  Arkansas 
of  recent  appointment.  Missouri  was  better  off;  she 
had  become  a  free  State  with  fairly  good  laws  pro¬ 
tecting  the  rights  of  the  freedmen  just  enacted ;  so  that 
the  operations  of  the  Bureau  almost  ceased  there. 

In  the  District  of  Columbia  and  vicinity,  where 
masses  of  freedmen  had  gathered,  Colonel  Eaton  had 
established  five  intelligence  offices,  and  through  them 
furnished  thousands  of  the  able-bodied  of  both  sexes 
with  situations  far  and  near.  He  had  been  much  wor¬ 
ried  during  the  year  with  the  Maryland  apprentice 
laws.  After  trial  he  could  only  relieve  specific  cases 
where  there  was  uncalled-for  restraint  and  cruelty ;  but 
his  reports  brought  their  ugly  slavery  features  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  President  and  Congress.  A  remedy 
came  in  time. 

The  work  of  my  officers  in  obtaining  recognition 
of  the  negro  as  a  man  instead  of  a  chattel  before  the 
civil  and  criminal  courts  took  the  lead;  we  took  the 
initiative  in  influencing  the  South  in  its  transition  into 
the  new  order  of  things.  In  land  and  labor  matters 
the  Bureau  found  existing  conditions  the  settlement 
of  which  would  brook  no  delay  if  we  were  to  pre¬ 
vent  race  wars  or  starvation;  but  under  the  title  of 
justice  was  the  first  active  endeavor  to  put  the  col¬ 
ored  man  or  woman  on  a  permanent  basis  on  a  higher 
plane. 

Here  is  the  way  the  process  began :  Quite  early  in 
my  administration  as  commissioner  I  paid  a  visit  to 

251 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

Virginia,  and  not  far  from  Charlotteville  met  a  small 
assembly  of  planters.  Some  of  them  said  they  could 
not  work  negroes  when  free.  Others  asked  what  was 
to  hinder  men  from  running  off  and  leaving  a  crop 
half  gathered?  The  most  of  them  appeared  quite  in 
despair  how  to  make  or  execute  contracts  with  ex¬ 
slaves. 

After  having  drawn  out  quite  generally  an  expres¬ 
sion  of  opinion  and  feeling  on  their  part,  I  addressed 
them:  “  Gentlemen,  no  one  of  us  alone  is  responsible 
for  emancipation.  The  negro  is  free.  This  is  a  fact. 
Now  cannot  we  blue-eyed  Anglo-Saxons  devise  some 
method  by  which  we  can  live  with  him  as  a  free  man?  ” 
I  then  made  a  suggestion.  “  Suppose  for  all  minor 
cases,  say  within  one  or  two  hundred  dollars  of  value, 
we  organize  a  court.  My  agent  being  one  member 
may  represent  the  Government;  the  planters  of  a  dis¬ 
trict  can  elect  another,  and  the  freedmen  a  third.  In 
nine  cases  out  of  ten  the  freedmen  will  choose  an  in¬ 
telligent  white  man  who  has  always  seemed  to  be 
their  friend.  Thus  in  our  court  so  constituted,  every 
interest  will  be  fairly  represented.’’  The  hearers  were 
pleased.  They  were  astonished  to  find  me  a  friend 
and  not  an  enemy,  and  they  said  with  feeling:  “  Gen¬ 
eral,  why  didn’t  you  come  down  here  before?  ” 

After  this  talk  a  court  was  started  there,  and  sim¬ 
ilar  courts  extended  in  orders  to  all  my  jurisdiction. 
For  the  whole  field  for  some  months  minor  justice  was 
administered  by  these  Bureau  courts  constituted 
wholly  or  partially  from  officers  or  agents  of  the  Bu¬ 
reau;  but  everywhere  when  practicable  we  associated 
civilians  with  our  officials.  By  orders,  the  power  as 
to  punishment  was  limited  to  not  exceed  $100  fine,  or 
thirty  days’  imprisonment.  All  cases  of  capital  crimes, 

252 


Courts  for  Freedmen 


felonies,  or  questions  relating  to  titles  to  real  estate 
were  referred  to  some  State  court,  if  sucli  existed 
where  the  case  occurred,  or  to  a  court  of  the  United 
States,  or  to  military  commissions. 

These  lesser  bureau  courts  were  often  necessary 
for  the  protection  of  negroes  against  small  personal 
persecutions  and  the  hostility  of  white  juries. 

The  higher  courts  of  a  State,  though  not  admit¬ 
ting  the  testimony  of  people  of  color,  were  usually  fair. 

As  soon  as  the  military  occupation  of  the  South 
had  been  completed,  provost  courts,  a  military  sub¬ 
stitute  for  civil  courts  in  unoccupied  territory,  were 
established  here  and  there  in  each  State.  We  gladly 
took  advantage  of  these  for  the  settlement  of  all  sorts 
of  difficulties.  The  sentence  could  be  readily  and  eas¬ 
ily  executed  against  black  and  white  men  because  of 
the  guardhouse  and  the  ever  ready  military  force.  In 
the  great  majority  of  instances,  the  provost  courts 
decided  fairly;  but  there  were  some  where  the  officers 
composing  them  had  the  infectious  prejudice  against 
the  negro,  and  discriminated  against  his  interest ; 
they  invariably  meted  out  to  those  who  abused  him  by 
extortion  or  violence,  punishments  too  small  and  in 
no  way  commensurate  with  their  offenses. 

When  the  President’s  provisional  governors  had  re¬ 
habilitated  the  States  under  their  old  laws  modified 
somewhat  to  conform  to  the  amendments  of  the  United 
States  Constitution,  the  civil  local  courts  became  avail¬ 
able  for  Bureau  purposes  and  were  at  once  used,  pro¬ 
vided  they  would  admit  the  testimony  of  the  freedmen. 
This  boon  of  negro  evidence  was  at  first  quite  gener¬ 
ally  refused. 

General  Swayne  in  Alabama,  proving  himself  an 
able  diplomat  as  well  as  a  good  lawyer,  had  the  first 

253 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

substantial  success.  He  bad  primarily  obtained  the 
good  will  and  cooperation  of  the  provisional  governor. 
He  next  agreed  with  him  to  transfer  all  causes  for 
court  action  to  the  State  tribunals,  if  they  simply 
would  admit  in  them  the  testimony  of  negroes.  The 
judges,  urged  and  advised  by  the  governor,  in  nearly 
the  whole  of  Alabama  gave  up  their  opposition  and 
yielded  recognition  and  decided  to  accept  the  jurisdic¬ 
tion.  Very  promptly  I  approved  of  Swayne’s  entire 
proposition,  believing  that  we  could  thus  test  the  dis¬ 
position  of  the  judicial  functionaries  as  to  their  will¬ 
ingness  to  do  justice  to  the  freedmen;  and  so  the  ex¬ 
periment  began  with  fair  success  in  that  State.  All 
officers  and  agents  of  the  Bureau  available  were  in¬ 
structed  to  act  as  advocates  of  the  freedmen  in  these 
courts ;  and  the  right  to  withdraw  Government  recog¬ 
nition  from  the  courts  was  kept  in  the  hands  of  the 
assistant  commissioner. 

As  soon  as  our  action  was  known  to  the  country, 
many  of  the  negroes’  pronounced  friends,  and  among 
them  Wendell  Phillips,  severely  condemned  my  action. 
“  Howard  has  put  the  freedmen  into  the  jaws  of  the 
tiger,”  he  cried.  But  the  ready  answer  which  I  gave 
was:  “  Justice  in  time  will  work  itself  clear.  It  is  a 
long  step  gained  to  secure  the  negro’s  testimony  in  the 
Southern  courts.”  Excellent  reports  soon  came  from 
nearly  every  quarter  of  Alabama.  There  were,  how¬ 
ever,  a  few  exceptions  on  the  borders  of  Tennessee  and 
Georgia. 

A  similar  course  was  tried  in  Mississippi,  but  the 
results,  owing  to  the  strong  indigenous  prejudice 
against  negroes  as  witnesses,  were  not  very  encourag¬ 
ing.  In  Louisiana  suits  and  testimonies  were  quickly 
allowed  under  the  State  government,  and  the  civil 

254 


Courts  for  Freedmen 

j 

courts  were  often  used  by  Bureau  officials  with  a  rea¬ 
sonable  measure  of  justice. 

Following  Alabama,  General  Tillson  tried  the  civil 
magistrates  of  Georgia  under  similar  directions  and 
restriction  as  in  Alabama.  He  was  reassured  by  a 
prompt  cooperation  and  pleased  with  the  action  every¬ 
where  taken.  He  felt  that  if  we  trusted  the  Southern 
white  people  more,  they  would  be  disposed  to  do  right. 

For  South  Carolina  General  Meade,  the  Military 
Division  commander,  forestalling  action  by  the  Bureau, 
had  arranged  with  the  provisional  governor  for  that 
State  that  all  freedmen’s  cases  should  be  brought  be¬ 
fore  his  provost  courts.  This  was  well  enough  gener¬ 
ally  for  immediate  justice,  but  not  so  well  for  the  ul¬ 
timate,  when  the  military  would  have  to  be  withdrawn. 

In  all  the  other  States  the  same  course  was  pur¬ 
sued  with  desirable  fruitage.  In  some  counties  after 
their  withdrawal  the  Bureau  courts  had  to  be  reestab¬ 
lished  to  prevent  open  revolt  by  negroes  against  evi¬ 
dent  legal  persecution  in  State  courts. 

To  avoid,  as  much  as  we  could,  too  much  new 
Bureau  legislation,  our  officers  secured  by  their  influ¬ 
ence  the  extension  as  far  as  possible  of  the  State  laws 
to  the  freedmen,  i.  e.,  laws  made  for  the  whites.  It 
was  always  the  practical  method — the  best  way — to 
make  use  of  time-honored  rules  established  by  wise 
legislation  for  other  people.  Those  laws  applicable 
to  marriage  and  divorce,  to  apprenticeship  of  orphan 
minors,  to  paupers  and  to  vagrancy  were  especially 
available.  Marriages  of  the  freedmen  were  carefully 
registered  by  the  Bureau  in  every  State;  many  or¬ 
phans  were  apprenticed  to  people  of  good  character, 
under  humane  and  liberal  regulations ;  and  the  district, 
parish,  county,  or  town  was  for  the  most  part  gradu- 

255 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

ally  induced  to  care  for  all  except  a  few  extreme  cases 
of  poverty  which  could  not  be  shown  to  belong  to  any 
particular  locality. 

In  view  of  the  entire  held,  the  outlook  as  touching 
justice  to  refugees  and  freedmen  appeared  to  be 
brighter  at  the  close  of  November,  1865,  than  for  a 
long  subsequent  period. 

It  has  not  been  possible  to  speak  of  land,  labor,  and 
justice  connected  with  the  destitute  refugees  and  freed¬ 
men  without  mentioning,  more  or  less,  the  indigent, 
helpless,  and  pauper  classes.  It  will  be  recalled  that, 
in  the  outset,  we  found  that  over  144,000  people  were 
receiving  daily  rations,  medical  supplies,  and  other 
help. 

Our  first  record  of  these  facts  was  found  at  the 
Wax  Department,  May,  1865.  By  the  end  of  the  year, 
we  had  made  a  great  reduction,  but  leaving  still  a  des¬ 
titute  host  of  more  than  70,000.  This  reduction, 
as  before  stated,  was  effected  by  finding  places 
of  work  and  giving  transportation  to  them,  and  also 
by  the  voluntary  efforts  of  refugees  and  freedmen, 
seeking  and  finding  employment  for  themselves.  Those 
obtaining  daily  rations  included  the  sick  and  the  or¬ 
phan  children,  citizen  employees  of  the  Bureau,  also 
officers  on  duty  with  us  and  citizens  laboring  volun¬ 
tarily  for  the  freedmen.  All  volunteer  helpers  re¬ 
ceived  their  rations  by  purchasing. 

For  a  few  days  after  the  Bureau  was  organized 
we  were  at  a  loss  how  to  feed  this  unorganized  mass. 
June  20th,  Colonel  Balloch  and  I  visited  General  A.  B. 
Eaton,  the  commissary  general  of  the  army,  and 
pleaded  before  him  our  case.  We  showed  him  our 
army  of  over  140,000  dependents;  that  there  was  no 
appropriation;  that  the  law  had  a  clause:  “  That  the 

256 


Courts  for  Freedmen 


Secretary  of  War  may  direct  such  issues  of  provisions, 
clothing,  and  fuel  as  he  may  deem  needful  for  the  im¬ 
mediate  and  temporary  shelter  and  supply  of  destitute 
and  suffering  refugees  and  freedmen  and  their  wives 
and  children,  under  such  rules  and  regulations  as  he 
may  direct.”  I  said :  “  The  Secretary  leaves  this  mat¬ 
ter,  General  Eaton,  to  you  and  to  me.”  We  then  sub¬ 
mitted  a  proposed  circular  letter,  which,  after  a  close 
examination  and  a  few  alterations,  General  Eaton 
approved. 

This  important  instrument  defined  the  destitute  ra¬ 
tion  in  all  its  parts  and  fixed  the  half  ration  for  chil¬ 
dren  under  fourteen  years.  The  ration  consisted 
mainly  of  pork,  bacon,  or  fresh  beef,  flour,  or  bread, 
with  occasional  issues  of  corn  meal,  beans,  peas,  or 
hominy  with  coffee  or  tea  for  women.  It  named  the  ra¬ 
tion  returns  (requisitions  for  rations)  and  required 
them  to  be  approved  and  signed  by  the  commanding 
officer  of  a  post  or  station,  and,  when  practicable,  by  an 
assistant  commissioner  or  one  of  his  agents  for  the 
State  or  district.  A  seven  days’  supply  could  be  ob¬ 
tained  at  a  time.  In  cases  where  the  destitute  could 
partially  supply  themselves,  then  only  such  parts  of 
the  ration  as  were  actually  needed  were  given.  Thus, 
taking  advantage  of  the  army  machinery,  at  a  stroke 
the  feeding  process  was  provided  for.  The  general  au¬ 
thority  for  all  supplies  was  put  by  the  law  in  the  hands 
of  the  Secretary  of  War,  and  so  my  order  after  ap¬ 
proval  by  Mr.  Stanton  required  quarterly  estimates  of 
all  provisions  and  clothing,  and  allowed  the  purchase 
of  rations  by  teachers  and  other  persons  working  for 
refugees  and  freedmen.  A  limited  transportation  was 
given  to  teachers  on  Government  transports  and  rail¬ 
ways — of  these  there  were  many  in  those  days — and 

257 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

the  instructions  allowed  public  buildings,  and  espe¬ 
cially  those  seized  from  disloyal  owners,  to  be  used  for 
schools  and  for  homes  for  teachers,  soldiers’  wives, 
and  refugees. 

A  few  months  having  elapsed,  October  10,  1865,  we 
received  further  positive  relief.  The  quartermaster’s 
department  was  directed  by  Mr.  Stanton  to  turn  over 
to  my  officers  on  their  requisitions  out  of  their  abun¬ 
dance,  such  quartermaster’s  stores  on  hand,  and  cloth¬ 
ing,  camp  and  garrison  equipage,  unfit  for  issue  to 
troops,  as  might  be  required  to  enable  such  officers  to 
perform  their  public  duties  and  provide  for  the  imme¬ 
diate  necessities  of  destitute  refugees  and  freedmen 
that  were  temporarily  dependent  on  the  Government. 

From  May  to  November  30th,  the  total  number  of 
white  refugees  who  had  been  transported  at  public 
charge  from  distant  places  to  their  own  homes,  or  to 
new  homes  found  for  them,  had  reached  1,778.  There 
had  been  from  May  to  this  date  a  steady  diminution 
of  this  class  to  be  moved,  so  that  in  the  month  of  No¬ 
vember  there  were  but  sixteen  persons  so  sent.  Cor¬ 
respondingly,  for  the  freedmen  for  November  only 
1,946  received  formal  transportation.  The  employees, 
teachers,  and  agents  of  benevolent  associations  receiv¬ 
ing  this  favor  were  307.  Besides  this  sending  of  per¬ 
sons,  boxes  and  bales  of  stores  were  forwarded  free 
of  charge,  such  as  had  been  collected  from  benevolent 
people  for  the  benefit  of  our  destitute  wards. 

The  medical  arrangement  was  most  important, 
— that  with  the  surgeon  general.  Our  medical  work 
had  at  first  been  done  in  an  irregular  way ;  but 
on  August  3,  1865,  Surgeon  General  Barnes  kindly  di¬ 
rected  his  medical  purveyors  to  issue  medical  and  hos¬ 
pital  supplies  to  our  medical  officers.  All  the  provi- 

258 


Courts  for  Freedmen 


sions  in  the  Bureau  law  were  thus  given  effect  for  at 
least  one  year  after  the  close  of  the  war,  and  that  date, 
hardly  fixed  by  any  single  event,  was  given  a  liberal 
interpretation.  June  16th,  Surgeon  Caleb  W.  Horner 
became  my  medical  director.  With  alacrity  he  entered 
upon  his  multifarious  duties,  and  little  by  little  ex¬ 
tended  the  Medical  Division  throughout  the  States 
where  the  Bureau  was  already  operating,  especially 
to  all  the  colonies,  camps,  hospitals,  and  orphan  asy¬ 
lums  directly  and  indirectly  under  our  charge. 

From  time  to  time  as  he  needed  them  he  called  for 
medical  assistants  and  they  were  promptly  furnished. 
By  the  middle  of  August  he  had  seventeen  such  assist¬ 
ants  from  the  army,  covering  the  whole  territory  from 
Maryland  to  Louisiana.  The  last  of  November  he 
wrote:  “Although  the  Bureau  has  not  yet  reached  the 
remote  sections  of  the  South,  already  forty-two  hos¬ 
pitals  with  accommodations  for  4,500  patients  are  in 
operation  and  facilities  are  afforded  for  the  treatment 
of  5,000  sick  in  twenty-four  asylums  and  established 
colonies.” 

Besides  the  medical  officers  designated,  eighty- 
three  physicians  and  180  male  and  177  female  attend¬ 
ants  were  employed  by  contract.  With  regard  to  the 
work  of  this  great  division  it  may  be  said  that  at  the 
close  of  the  year  2,531  white  refugees  had  been  under 
medical  treatment  and  45,898  freedmen  had  received 
medical  aid,  yet  there  remained  in  all  the  hospitals 
only  388  refugees  and  6,645  freedmen.  The  percent¬ 
age  of  deaths  during  the  year,  owing  to  the  previous 
hardships  to  which  the  patients  had  been  exposed,  was 
unusually  large ;  for  refugees  9  per  cent  had  died,  and 
for  freedmen  13  per  cent.  Before  systematic  medical 
aid  was  extended  to  these  people  they  were  found  to  be 

259 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

dying  at  the  rate  of  30  per  cent.  But  where  the 
relief  system  of  the  Bureau  had  been  made  complete, 
as  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  the  mortality  was  re¬ 
duced  to  less  than  4  per  cent. 

As  concrete  illustrations  a  few  of  the  orphan  asy¬ 
lums  will  serve.  By  the  breaking  up  of  the  slave  sys¬ 
tem  former  owners  were  of  course  freed  from  the  care 
of  negro  children,  and  there  having  been  in  much  of 
the  South  a  want  of  any  permanent  family  relation 
among  the  slaves,  hosts  of  negro  children  without  par¬ 
ents  or  friends  were  found  in  Southern  cities.  In 
the  District  of  Columbia  was  one  asylum  established 
during  the  war  under  the  auspices  of  a  Ladies’  Benevo¬ 
lent  Society.  The  name  under  its  charter  was  the  Na¬ 
tional  Association  for  the  Relief  of  Destitute  Colored 
Women  and  Children.  When  the  war  was  over  and 
our  active  Bureau  agency  came  to  play  its  part,  all 
helpless  adults  were  soon  cared  for  in  the  Freedmen’s 
Hospital  of  the  district,  so  that  this  society  thereafter 
confined  its  attention  and  resources  mainly  to  orphan 
children.  They  cared  for  between  one  and  two  hun¬ 
dred  during  1865.  At  first  the  association  occupied 
the  “  abandoned  property  ”  of  Mr.  R.  S.  Cox,  situated 
near  Georgetown  in  the  District,  and  they  greatly 
hoped  to  retain  that  property,  which  was  in  a  healthful 
location  and  in  every  way  commodious.  But,  on  Au¬ 
gust  17th,  I  informed  the  ladies  of  the  association  that 
President  Johnson  had  requested  the  Bureau  to  pro¬ 
vide  some  other  place  for  the  orphans  because  he  had 
fully  pardoned  Mr.  Cox,  the  Confederate  owner,  and 
he  was  thereby  entitled  to  complete  restoration  of 
his  estate.  The  ladies  were  much  grieved  at  this 
action  of  the  President,  yet  after  some  delay  they  pur¬ 
chased  several  lots  on  the  Seventh  Street  road,  just 

260 


Courts  for  Freedmen 

beyond  the  limits  of  the  city  of  Washington;  and 
thereon,  as  quickly  as  possible,  the  Bureau  erected  a 
suitable  building  for  the  asylum.  Here  the  orphans 
were  properly  provided  for.  It  further  aided  the 
good  ladies  with  rations  and  medical  attendance.  Mr. 
Cox,  a  citizen  newly  made  by  the  removal  of  his  po¬ 
litical  disabilities,  sought  a  little  retributive  justice 
against  that  association  of  ladies  by  suing  them  for 
damages  to  his  property  during  their  occupancy  to 
the  amount  of  $10,000,  but  he  was  not  successful  in 
his  suit. 

Three  orphan  asylums  in  New  Orleans  were  main¬ 
tained  the  same  year.  One  of  them  was  on  Dryades 
Street,  mainly  in  charge  of  the  National  Freedmen’s 
Belief  Association.  The  Bureau,  as  in  Washington, 
aided  the  management  with  food,  medicine,  and  medi¬ 
cal  care  for  the  children,  whose  number  was  about  one 
hundred.  Madame  Louise  de  Mortie,  an  educated  and 
philanthropic  lady,  opened  another  asylum  in  the  Soule 
mansion,  designed  for  orphan  girls.  This  mansion, 
abandoned,  was  assigned  to  her  by  the  Bureau.  The 
lady  provided  for  between  sixty  and  seventy  girls. 
This  institution  required  but  little  help  from  the 
assistant  commissioner.  For  a  time,  there  were  in 
Louisiana  two  other  asylums,  one  that  had  been  in  ex¬ 
istence  before  1865  and  was  supported  wholly  by  the 
Government;  the  other  was  opened  by  the  colored 
people  themselves.  The  assistant  commissioner  for 
Louisiana  speedily  united  these  two  and  put  them  un¬ 
der  the  management  of  the  National  Freedmen’s  Asso¬ 
ciation,  the  Bureau  furnishing,  as  generally,  a  build¬ 
ing,  medical  aid,  fuel,  and  rations.  This  union  asylum, 
well  located  in  New  Orleans,  had  the  care  of  a  hundred 
and  fifty  orphan  children  at  a  time,  and  did  excellent 

261 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

service.  The  colored  people  themselves  of  this  city 
very  largely  cared  for  the  orphans  of  their  friends 
and  acquaintances  in  their  own  families,  and  thus, 
when  orphanage  was  at  its  height,  generously  saved 
the  Government  much  expense. 


262 


CHAPTER  LI 


THE  EARLY  FINANCES;  SCHOOLS  STARTED 

OLONEL  BALLOCH,  before  mentioned,  was 
early  placed  at  the  bead  of  financial  affairs  in 
the  Freedmen’s  Bureau.  He  came  to  it  by  detail  from 
the  subsistence  department  of  the  volunteer  army. 

It  was  the  original  intention  of  Mr.  Stanton  and 
myself  that  Balloch,  who  had  been  an  excellent  com¬ 
missary  of  brigade,  of  division  and  of  corps,  often 
under  me  during  the  progress  of  the  war,  should  have 
charge  of  commissary  matters.  He  was  particularly 
fitted  to  supervise  the  procurement  and  issue  of  food 
to  destitute  refugees  and  freedmen;  but  as  he  was 
known  to  be  a  good  financial  officer,  of  large  experience 
and  probity,  and  already  under  bonds  for  the  faithful 
disbursement  of  public  funds,  I  decided  to  assign  him 
to  additional  duty  as  chief  accounting  officer. 

There  was,  the  first  year,  no  direct  appropriation 
of  money  for  the  support  of  our  Bureau,  and  in  con¬ 
sequence,  besides  what  came  from  abandoned  property, 
aid  had  to  be  obtained,  as  we  have  seen,  from  the  quar¬ 
termaster,  commissary  and  medical  departments  of 
the  army.  The  law  itself,  it  will  be  observed,  sanc¬ 
tioned  these  sources  of  supply,  and  by  implication 
required  not  only  that  all  abandoned  property,  but  all 
other  matters,  including  funds,  should  be  under  the 
supervision  of  the  commissioner,  under  such  regula- 

263 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

tions  as  be  might  prescribe,  provided  he  obtained  the 
approval  of  the  President. 

The  following  table,  which  the  reader  may  skip  if 
he  dislikes  such  literature,  will  indicate  how  the  funds, 
gathered  from  various  sources  and  transferred  to  the 
accounting  officer,  were  recorded.  The  table  further 
shows  something  of  their  original  use : 

Receipts 

Amounts  received  during  the  year  1865 

From  Freedmen’s  Fund .  $466,028.35 

“  Retained  Bounties .  115,236.49 

For  Clothing,  Fuel,  and  Subsistence  sold .  7,704.21 

From  Farms .  76,709.12 

“  Rents  of  Buildings .  56,012.42 

“  “  “  Lands .  125,521.00 

“  Quartermaster’s  Department .  12,200.00 

“  Conscript  Fund .  13,498.11 

“  Schools  (Tax  and  Tuition) .  34,486.58 


Total  received .  $907,396.28 

Expenditures 

Freedmen’s  Fund . . .  $8,009 . 14 

Clothing,  Fuel,  and  Subsistence .  75,504.05 

Farms .  40,069.71 

Household  Furniture . 2,904.90 

Rents  of  Buildings .  11,470.88 

Labor  (by  freedmen  and  other  employees) .  237,097 . 62 

Repairs  of  Buildings .  19,518.46 

Contingent  Expenses .  46,328.07 

Rents  of  Lands .  300.00 

Internal  Revenue .  1 ,379 . 86 

Conscript  F und .  6,515.37 

Transportation .  1,445.51 

Schools .  27,819.60 


Total  expended .  $478,363.17 

Balance  on  hand,  October  31,  1865 .  429,033. 11 

Deduct  Retained  Bounties .  115,236.49 


Balance  available  for  liabilities .  $313,796.62 

The  sums  that  came  into  the  hands  of  the  chief  dis¬ 
bursing  officer,  originally  arising  from  taxes  on  sala¬ 
ries  of  colored  employees  retained  in  some  instances 

264 


The  Early  Finances 

during  the  war  to  support  the  destitute,  the  sums  from 
taxes  on  cotton,  where  freedmen  were  interested,  from 
tines  in  the  provost  courts,  and  from  donations  or 
small  amounts  raised  in  any  lawful  manner  for  the 
benefit  of  the  freedmen,  were  considered  by  us  as  a 
single  fund ,  and  we  named  it  “  The  Freedmen’s  Fund.” 

The  clothing,  fuel,  and  subsistence  of  the  table  were 
what  was  collected  after  abandonment  by  Government 
officials  at  the  close  of  the  war,  Union  and  Confeder¬ 
ate  articles,  and  taken  up  by  our  officers  and  sold  for 
the  benefit  of  refugees  and  freedmen.  The  item 
“  Farms  ”  signified  the  produce  which  was  disposed 
of  for  cash.  The  rents  of  abandoned  lands  and  build¬ 
ings  became  quite  an  item,  and  materially  aided  in 
sustaining  Bureau  operations.  The  money  which  came 
from  the  quartermaster’s  department  arose  from  the 
rentals  of  abandoned  lots  or  lands  that  army  quarter¬ 
masters  paid  over  to  the  Bureau.  In  some  States, 
as  in  Louisiana,  there  existed  for  a  short  time  a  small 
tax  laid  upon  all  who  directly  or  indirectly  within  a 
given  district  were  concerned  in  the  schools ;  and  there 
was  also  a  small  tuition  charged  in  those  schools  where 
pupils  could  afford  it. 

The  disbursing  officer  in  his  first  report  had  this 
brief  account  of  the  origin  of  the  retained  bounties: 
“  The  amount  held  as  retained  bounties  cannot  be  con¬ 
sidered  as  funds  of  the  Bureau,  as  it  is  merely  held 
in  trust  for  colored  soldiers,  or  their  families,  in  ac¬ 
cordance  with  (General  Benjamin  F.  Butler’s)  General 
Orders  No.  90,  Department  of  Virginia  and  North 
Carolina,  current  series,  1864.” 

By  General  Butler’s  orders  a  portion  of  the  boun¬ 
ties  due  to  colored  soldiers  who  were  secured  and  en¬ 
listed  to  fill  up  the  quota  of  troops  from  the  different 

265 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

States  was  segregated  and  put  into  a  fund.  This 
fund  was  to  be  used  for  the  support  or  partial  support 
of  the  wives  and  children  of  the  colored  soldiers  thus 
enlisted.  A  part  of  it  had  been  disbursed  in  accord¬ 
ance  with  the  terms  of  the  orders  and  the  balance,  un¬ 
der  the  President’s  instructions,  was  transferred  to 
our  Bureau.  At  first  it  was  simply  kept  in  trust,  so 
uncertain  did  we  feel  concerning  the  proper  disposal 
of  it.  After  a  time  a  part  of  the  fund  was  used  to  pur¬ 
chase  a  building  and  land  for  a  colored  school.  I  had 
the  opinion  that  that  would  be  a  good  disposition  to 
make  of  any  remaining  balance,  provided  there  should 
be  sufficient,  of  course,  after  we  had  paid  back  to  all 
we  could  find  of  the  soldiers  concerned  and  to  their 
families  what  plainly  belonged  to  them.  In  fact,  re¬ 
payment  had  gone  on  continuously,  though  the  late 
soldiers  concerned,  being  widely  scattered,  were  hard 
to  find. 

We  knew  that  the  school  building,  which  was  the 
freed  people’s  best  relief,  could  be  disposed  of  at  any 
time;  and  that  very  soon  the  interest  of  the  fund, 
mostly  in  United  States  bonds,  would  cover  the  pur¬ 
chase. 

One  day  in  conversation  with  Senator  Lot  M.  Mor¬ 
rill,  I  called  his  attention  to  this  fund.  He  said  that 
such  an  expenditure  ought  to  be  approved  by  action 
of  Congress,  otherwise  that  money  might  cause  me 
trouble.  After  this  interview,  a  bill  was  submitted 
to  Congress  which  authorized  such  investments  and 
disposition  of  the  money  as  had  been  made.  It  passed 
one  House,  but  was  amended  in  the  other,  by  striking 
out  the  real  estate  clause.  In  this  form  it  became  a 
law.  It  required  the  Bureau  to  pay  the  bounty  money 
to  the  soldiers  and  their  families  as  far  as  might  be, 

266 


The  Early  Finances 

and  if  there  remained  any  balance  at  the  close  of  the 
Bureau  to  cover  that  into  the  United  States  Treasury. 
The  real  estate  used  for  the  school  was  disposed  of 
as  soon  as  possible,  and  the  money  returned  to  the 
fund.  Payments  were  made  from  time  to  time  accord¬ 
ing  to  the  terms  of  the  Act,  vouchers  always  being 
taken  for  General  Balloch’s  accounts.  His  successor, 
Major  J.  M.  Brown,  and  then  myself  following  Brown, 
in  closing  up  the  Bureau  made  the  disbursements,  as 
did  Balloch.  At  last  I  deposited  the  final  balance  in 
the  Treasury  as  required,  took  my  receipts  and  closed 
up  the  account. 

At  one  time  Balloch  had  presented  an  account  with 
his  vouchers  for  that  fund  to  an  auditor  of  the  Treas¬ 
ury,  who  declined  to  receive  it  because  of  its  nature, 
not  being,  as  he  said,  properly  United  States  funds. 
After  that  refusal  neither  of  us  again  submitted  ac¬ 
counts  of  that  fund  to  the  auditing  office.  Balloch 
left  his  vouchers  when  mustered  out  of  service  in  a 
bundle  in  his  desk.  Some  time  after  the  Bureau  had 
ceased  its  main  work,  and  after  a  small  remnant  had 
been  transferred  to  the  Record  Division  of  the  War 
Department  for  completion,  the  Secretary  of  War, 
General  W.  W.  Belknap,  called  upon  me  for  an  item¬ 
ized  statement  of  the  entire  “  retained  bounty  fund.” 
It  was  this  fund,  with  the  interest  thereon,  which  the 
Court  of  Inquiry,  of  which  General  Sherman  was 
president,  thoroughly  investigated  during  the  spring 
of  1874.  Either  in  the  transfer  of  the  papers  by 
wagon  from  my  office  to  the  War  Department  build¬ 
ing,  or  in  the  subsequent  burning  of  papers,  which 
were  deemed  of  no  value,  by  the  War  Department, 
the  vouchers  which  Balloch  had  put  into  his  desk  had 
disappeared  altogether;  but  fortunately  by  the  use  of 

267 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

a  book  of  record,  which  had  been  carefully  kept,  and 
also  by  finding  duplicate  vouchers  retained  by  subor¬ 
dinate  disbursing  officers  in  the  States  where  the  boun¬ 
ties  were  paid,  I  was  able  to  account  for  the  entire  fund 
to  the  satisfaction  of  the  court.  This  result,  however, 
did  not  satisfy  General  Belknap,  who  caused  the 
United  States  to  sue  me  for  the  entire  fund.  That 
suit  was  brought  against  me  after  I  had  gone  to 
Oregon  and  taken  command  of  the  Department  of  the 
Columbia.  The  case  was  continued  in  the  United  States 
District  Court  of  Oregon,  by  formal  postponement  on 
the  motion  of  the  United  States  district  attornev,  for 
two  years.  At  last  the  case  was  transferred  (as  a  con¬ 
venience  to  the  Government)  to  the  Court  of  the  Dis¬ 
trict  of  Columbia  and  there  tried.  The  jury  found 
for  me  without  leaving  their  seats  on  every  count. 
So  that  after  great  trouble  and  expense  the  retained 
bounty  case  was  finally  settled. 

As  will  appear  in  the  description  of  the  subsequent 
operations  of  the  Bureau,  the  division  of  financial  af¬ 
fairs,  besides  administering  the  funds  already  noted, 
as  the  money  was  collected  and  spent,  was  the  disburs¬ 
ing  office  for  all  the  Congressional  appropriations  for 
the  Bureau. 

After  the  first  year  all  the  original  sources  of  rev¬ 
enue  for  the  Bureau  except  the  retained  bounty  fund 
and  direct  Congressional  appropriations  were  united 
and  called  the  “  Refugees’  and  Freedmen’s  Fund,” 
and  expended  for  proper  public  purposes,  mainly  for 
labor  and  schools. 

The  many  benevolent  organizations  of  the  country, 
which  I  have  mentioned,  after  the  commencement  of 
Bureau  work,  gradually  lessened  their  eleemosynary 
features  and  gave  themselves  vigorously  to  the  teach- 

268 


The  Early  Finances 

ing  of  children  and  youth  and  the  planting  of  schools. 
May  18,  1865,  the  Rev.  Lyman  Abbott,  then  a  vigorous 
young  minister,  paid  a  visit  to  the  new  Bureau.  He 
came  to  Washington  as  a  delegate  from  New  York 
to  speak  in  behalf  of  several  volunteer  freedmen’s 
societies.  There  had  already  been  some  effort  among 
them  to  consolidate.  I  at  once  favored  a  plan  for  a 
general  union  of  forces,  which  would  evidently  make 
them  both  more  effective  and  more  economical  in 
administration. 

Mr.  Abbott,  agreeing  with  this  view,  promised  to 
do  all  in  his  power  to  bring  about  such  union.  As  he 
was  greatly  interested  in  the  work  of  education  among 
the  freedmen,  I  consulted  him  with  reference  to  the 
first  important  circular  issued  from  headquarters  May 
19,  1865.  It  announced  well-defined  principles  of  ac¬ 
tion.  Mr.  Abbott’s  aid  and  advice  have  ever  since 
been  gratefully  remembered.  The  following  words 
met  his  special  approval :  “  I  invite,  therefore,  the  con¬ 
tinuance  and  cooperation  of  such  societies.  I  trust 
they  will  be  generously  supported  by  the  people,  and 
I  request  them  to  send  me  their  names,  list  of  their 
principal  officers,  and  a  brief  statement  of  their  pres¬ 
ent  work.  .  .  .  The  educational  and  moral  condition  of 
these  (the  freed)  people  will  not  be  forgotten.  The 
utmost  facility  will  be  afforded  to  benevolent  and  reli¬ 
gious  organizations  and  State  authorities  in  the  main¬ 
tenance  of  good  schools  for  refugees  and  freedmen 
until  a  system  of  free  schools  can  be  supported  by  the 
recognized  local  governments.  Meanwhile,  whenever 
schools  are  broken  up  by  any  authorized  agent  of  the 
Government,  it  is  requested  that  the  fact  and  attend¬ 
ant  circumstances  be  reported  to  this  Bureau. 

“  Let  me  repeat,  that  in  all  this  work  it  is  not  my 

269 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

purpose  to  supersede  the  benevolent  agencies  already 
engaged  in  it,  but  to  systematize  and  facilitate  them.” 

The  next  step  after  public  announcement  was  to 
introduce  in  the  field  some  practical  systematic  ar¬ 
rangement.  So  much  overlapping  and  interference 
one  with  another  were  found  among  the  workers  that 
I  hastened  to  appoint  a  school  superintendent  for  each 
State.  He  was  generally  a  commissioned  officer  de¬ 
tailed  from  the  army  and  placed  under  the  direct 
authority  of  the  State  assistant  commissioner  of  the 
Bureau.  The  majority  of  the  schools  throughout  the 
South  were  elementary.  They  were  more  flourishing 
in  those  localities  which  had  been  for  six  months  or 
more  within  the  lines  of  our  armies.  After  peace 
many  Government  schools  were  added  to  those  of  the 
benevolent  societies,  being  brought  into  existence  by 
Bureau  officials.  These  were  self-supporting  from  the 
start.  The  educational  work  was  in  every  way  helped 
by  the  extraordinary  ardor  of  the  pupils  and  the  en¬ 
thusiasm  of  the  teachers,  fed  by  the  societies  behind 
them,  who  at  this  time  voiced  the  generous  devotion 
of  benevolent  people  everywhere.  Yet  the  ruling 
classes  among  the  Southern  whites  were  deeply  of¬ 
fended.  They  said  at  first:  “  If  the  Yankees  are  al¬ 
lowed  to  educate  the  negroes  as  they  are  now  doing, 
the  next  thing  will  be  to  let  them  vote.”  No  one  can 
describe  the  odium  that  awaited  the  excellent,  self- 
denying  teachers  of  freedmen  in  those  days.  Our 
first  official  summary  of  these  schools  declared  that 
“  doubtless  the  treatment  to  which  they,  the  teachers, 
have  been  subjected  is  due  in  part  to  the  feelings  en¬ 
gendered  by  the  war,  but  it  is  mostly  attributable  to 
prejudice  against  educating  the  blacks,  and  the  belief 
that  the  teachers  are  fostering  social  equality.”  Even 

270 " 


The  Early  Finances 

then,  however,  there  were  notable  exceptions  to  this 
opinion  and  conduct  in  the  South.  Some  prominent 
Southern  men  earnestly  advocated  the  introduction 
of  schools,  and  several  Southern  churches  established 
them  in  connection  with  their  own  organizations.  The 
entire  number  of  pupils  in  the  schools  for  freedmen  at 
the  close  of  1865  in  the  States  that  had  been  in  insur¬ 
rection,  adding  Missouri,  Kentucky,  Maryland,  and 
the  District  of  Columbia,  amounted  to  90,589;  teach¬ 
ers  1,314,  and  schools  740.  Mr.  J.  W.  Alvord  was 
made  the  chief  inspector  of  schools,  October  2,  1865. 
The  Bureau  gave  transportation  to  teachers  from  their 
homes  to  the  field  and  back  during  the  necessary 
vacations.  It  also  carried  all  their  books  and  furni¬ 
ture,  and  to  a  considerable  extent  while  the  abandoned 
property  remained  available,  provided  buildings  for 
the  dwelling  places  of  teachers  and  for  the  schools 
themselves.  I  early  came  to  the  conclusion  that  our 
school  work  was  best  promoted  by  placing  one  dollar 
of  public  money  by  the  side  of  one  of  voluntary  con¬ 
tribution.  The  Bureau  gave  to  any  benevolent  society 
in  that  proportion.  The  society  which  undertook  the 
most  in  that  manner  received  most. 

President  Johnson’s  restoration  of  estates,  how¬ 
ever,  which  we  have  already  noticed,  soon  caused 
schoolhouses,  churches,  and  many  private  residences 
to  be  severed  from  our  use.  One  inspector  wrote  that 
our  admirable  system  of  education  well  inaugurated 
must  fail  unless  permanent  real  estate  for  the  freed¬ 
men  and  the  schools  could  in  some  way  he  secured. 
The  benevolent  societies  were  ready  to  erect  their  own 
buildings  if  we  could  furnish  them  lots  on  which  to 
build.  This  disposition  helped  us  finally  to  great 
results. 


271 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

A  partial  consolidation  of  societies  was  at  last  ef¬ 
fected.  For  a  time  the  Bureau  dealt  in  the  main  with 
only  two,  the  American  Union  Commission  and  the 
American  Missionary  Association.  The  latter,  besides 
its  freedmen’s  schools,  carried  out  the  universal  desire 
that  the  children  of  white  refugees  should  also  be  well 
cared  for.  At  Bichmond,  Va.,  the  Association  had 
such  a  school  with  375  pupils  and  five  teachers.  It  had 
another  each  evening  for  50  adults.  The  same  Associ¬ 
ation  sustained  still  another  at  Athens,  Tenn.,  for  95 
white  children,  and  partially,  for  a  time  near  Chatta¬ 
nooga,  a  refugees’  school  located  in  old  war  buildings 
which  the  Confederates  had  erected  near  the  crest  of 
Lookout  Mountain.  Mr.  Christopher  B.  Bobert  of 
New  York  City  had  bought  the  buildings  at  the  Gov¬ 
ernment’s  auction  sale  and  devoted  them  to  this  use. 
Mr.  Bobert  was  the  same  who  had  established  Bobert 
College  in  Constantinople.  A  few  hundred  children 
were  there  cared  for  under  the  superintendence  of 
Prof.  C.  F.  P.  Bancroft,  who  was  later  the  efficient 
principal  of  Phillips  Academy,  Andover,  Mass.  After 
a  few  years’  trial  this  Lookout  Mountain  school  was 
closed.  Before  a  railway  came  the  mountain  was  too 
inaccessible. 

In  the  face  of  many  difficulties  there  was  hopeful 
activity  the  latter  part  of  1865.  An  old  citizen  wrote 
from  Halifax,  N.  C. :  “I  constantly  see  in  the  streets 
and  on  the  doorsteps  opposite  my  dwelling  groups  of 
little  negroes  studying  their  lessons.” 

In  Charleston,  S.  C.,  even  in  the  slave  times,  free 
persons  of  color  could  be  taught  in  books.  In  that 
city  at  this  time  the  opposition  to  freedmen’s  schools 
was  inconsiderable. 

In  Louisiana,  where  the  schools  had  been  supported 

272 


The  Early  Finances 

by  a  State  tax  levied  by  military  authority,  they  had 
become  remarkable  for  completeness  of  organization 
and  proficiency.  Before  the  close  of  the  year,  how¬ 
ever,  the  order  levying  the  tax  was  countermanded. 
The  consternation  of  the  freedmen  was  intense.  They 
begged  to  be  assessed  the  whole  amount  of  the  tax,  and 
at  last  formally  petitioned  the  military  commander 
to  this  effect.  From  one  plantation  alone,  opposite 
New  Orleans,  came  a  petition  thirty  feet  long,  covered 
with  signatures.  Many  a  signer,  of  course,  merely 
made  a  cross  opposite  his  name.  This  earnestness 
of  ignorant  men  in  behalf  of  their  children’s  education 
was  indeed  remarkable  and  full  of  promise. 

The  Society  of  Friends  maintained  an  evening 
school  in  Baltimore  for  colored  porters  and  draymen, 
having  an  average  of  forty  in  attendance ;  while  young 
men  of  Quaker  families  constituted  the  corps  of  volun¬ 
teer  teachers. 

The  latter  part  of  the  year,  when  the  President’s 
attitude  was  known  to  be  unfriendly  to  anything  ex¬ 
cept  work,  there  arose  in  several  districts  of  Mary¬ 
land  sharp  and  organized  opposition  to  all  freedmen’s 
schools.  Both  teachers  and  children  were  chased  and 
stoned  in  one  town,  Easton,  by  rough  white  men.  Res¬ 
olutions  to  drive  out  the  teacher  were  passed  in  a 
public  meeting  in  Dorchester;  while  unknown  parties 
burned  the  church  and  schoolliouse  in  Kent  county. 
Other  such  church  edifices,  used  for  schools,  were 
burned  in  Cecil,  Queen  Anne,  and  Somerset  counties. 
This  was  done  with  a  view  to  shut  up  existing  schools 
and  prevent  new  efforts.  It  was  the  burning  of  the 
buildings  in  this  quarter,  coupled  with  hostile  feeling 
and  action  elsewhere,  which  more  than  any  other  one 
thing  united  the  Republicans,  radical  and  conserva- 

273 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

tive,  in  Congress,  and  induced  them  to  advocate  a  uni¬ 
versal  suffrage.  Hostile  spirits  declared  that  if  the 
negroes  were  allowed  to  read  they  would  soon  be 
permitted  to  vote.  By  their  violence  these  men 
hastened  the  very  consequences  which  they  most 
feared. 

It  was  only  here  and  there  that  any  of  our  schools 
had  at  this  time  passed  beyond  the  rudiments.  An 
extraordinary  thirst  for  knowledge  caused  numerous 
night  schools  to  be  undertaken,  particularly  in  Wash¬ 
ington,  and  there  were  a  few  of  an  industrial  char¬ 
acter  set  on  foot.  In  one  of  these  quantities  of  gar¬ 
ments  were  made,  and  in  another  quite  a  variety  of 
clothing.  A  Washington  teacher  voiced  a  common 
sentiment  in  saying:  “I  have  found  the  children  very 
much  like  white  ones  in  the  matter  of  learning.  Some 
are  stupid  and  others  are  bright.”  The  negro  children 
were  then  more  eager  for  knowledge  than  ordinary 
white  ones,  being  stimulated  by  their  parents,  to  whom 
knowledge  of  books  had  hitherto  been  like  forbidden 
fruit.  Our  inspectors,  traveling  constantly,  found 
instances  of  what  they  called  self-teaching,  that  is,  per¬ 
severing  attempts  on  the  part  of  adults  to  educate 
themselves.  They  entered  some  schools  where  colored 
men  and  women  were  trying  to  impart  what  little  they 
knew  to  others,  though  they  had  hardly  grasped  the 
rudiments  themselves.  Their  pupils  were  of  all  ages, 
and  were  separated  into  attentive  groups.  One  group 
would  have  for  a  teacher  a  young  man,  another  a 
woman  or  old  preacher.  These  rude  schoolrooms  were 
discovered  in  cellars,  sheds,  or  the  corner  of  a  negro 
meetinghouse.  The  improvised  teacher  would  have 
the  card  alphabet  in  hand  or  a  torn  spelling  book.  All 
seemed  full  of  enthusiasm  with  the  knowledge  which 

274 


The  Early  Finances 

the  card  or  the  book  was  imparting.  There  was  an¬ 
other  fruitful  institution,  namely,  the  colored  regiment. 
An  instance  will  illustrate.  A  regiment  was  stationed 
at  Fort  Livingston,  La.  An  officer  selected  ten  of  the 
brightest-appearing  colored  soldiers  and  spent  two 
hours  a  day  in  teaching  them  to  read.  This  he  did 
under  a  promise  that  each  of  the  ten  would  take  a  class 
of  four  and  devote  the  same  amount  of  time  to  them. 
Books  and  cards  were  obtained  and  the  school  under¬ 
taken.  The  soldiers  faithfully  kept  their  agreement; 
while  being  taught  they  instructed  one  another  and  in 
a  few  days  many  of  the  regiment  had  begun  to  read. 
The  soldiers  then  hired  a  competent  teacher  to  extend 
their  knowledge.  This  good  work  had  gone  on  about 
a  year  when  the  friendly  officer  declared  that  his  A 
B  C  pupils  were  already  taking,  and  in  addition  to 
enjoying  the  illustrations,  were  reading  forty  copies 
of  Harper’s  and  Frank  Leslie’s  Weeklies  besides  other 
papers. 

The  first  year  of  school  work  appeared  to  all  of  us 
who  were  interested  only  a  nucleus,  a  preparation 
for  the  future.  Hitherto,  donations  from  the  benevo¬ 
lent  had  been  generously  made,  and  there  was  hope 
of  a  steady  continuance.  Hindrances,  however,  as  in 
all  undertakings,  made  their  appearance  and  made  it 
difficult  to  keep  the  official  and  the  benevolent  in  har¬ 
mony.  As  means  of  transportation  in  the  South  on 
land  and  water  naturally  ceased  to  be  under  Govern¬ 
ment  control  with  the  withdrawal  of  troops,  it  became 
difficult  to  furnish  transportation  to  teachers  or  so¬ 
ciety  agents.  Before  the  end  of  1865,  such  transporta¬ 
tion  was  altogether  interdicted  by  the  Secretary  of 
War.  Again  citizen  opposition  in  every  locality  where 
there  were  schools  was  gathering  force.  Places  which 

275 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

had  appeared  in  the  outset  favorable  to  education  be¬ 
came  suddenly  inimical.  It  was  evident  to  us  who 
were  on  the  lookout  that  the  whole  movement  for  edu¬ 
cating  the  freedmen  would  cease  unless  kept  for  a  long 
period  under  the  protection  of  the  general  Govern¬ 
ment.  Our  officers  and  agents,  without  exception,  wrote 
decidedly  that  military  protection  alone  could  save  our 
schools.  Without  it  they  would  be  before  long  utterly 
broken  up  and  new  ones  could  not  be  put  in  operation. 
It  was  not  altogether  the  driving  out  of  teachers  or  the 
treating  them  with  contempt  and  unkindness  which 
threatened  the  existence  of  the  schools.  There  was 
wanting  that  sense  of  quiet  and  security  which  is  al¬ 
ways  essential  to  a  successful  prosecution  of  study. 
There  was  indeed  apprehension  in  the  air  in  all  places 
where  military  or  Bureau  occupation  did  not  exist. 


276 


CHAPTER  LII 


president  Johnson’s  reconstruction  and  further 
BUREAU  LEGISLATION  FOR  1866 

jD  RESIDENT  JOHNSON,  by  the  inspiration  and 
help  of  his  Secretary  of  State,  Mr.  Seward,  had 
succeeded  before  the  meeting  of  Congress  in  Decem¬ 
ber,  1865,  in  completely  rehabilitating  all  the  States 
that  had  belonged  to  the  Southern  Confederacy,  so  far 
as  the  form  went.  Apparently  all  the  functions  of 
Government,  both  State  and  National,  were  already 
reawakened  and  in  operation.  By  taking  the  old  State 
constitutions  of  1861  and  modifying  them  slightly  to 
make  them  comply  with  the  Thirteenth  Amendment  of 
the  National  Constitution,  seemingly  the  problems  of 
reconstruction  were  solved.  Everything,  for  a  time,  to 
the  late  Confederates,  was  going  on  as  they  would  have 
it.  All  those  who  had  been  for  four  years  fighting 
against  the  United  States  were  again  in  power  at  the 
State  capitals,  or  so  close  behind  those  in  office  that 
they  made  themselves  felt  in  every  sort  of  legislation 
and  act  of  administration.  But  the  freedmen  were  left 
outside  of  all  proper  citizenship.  They  had  no  voice 
directly  or  indirectly  in  the  new  governments  over 
them,  and  soon,  worse  than  that,  vicious  laws  were 
passed  that  made  their  actual  condition  deplorable. 
They  were,  indeed,  but  for  military  protection,  which 
still  lingered  in  the  South,  worse  off  than  under  the 
old  system  of  slavery. 


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At  this  juncture,  when  Congress  was  assembling, 
the  situation  may  be  summarized  as  follows :  The 
Southern  legislators,  in  keeping  with  Judge  Taney’s 
famous  Dred  Scott  decision,  very  clearly  demonstrated 
that  the  negro  had  no  rights.  True,  they  had  formally 
adopted  the  Thirteenth  Amendment  to  the  National 
Constitution,  but  had  followed  that  action  by  legis¬ 
lation  which  vitiated  its  provisions.  The  smallest  acts 
annoying  to  white  men  were  raised  to  misdemeanors, 
while  vagrancy,  poverty,  and  even  enforced  idleness 
were  made  to  constitute  a  crime  to  be  punished  by 
excessive  fines  or  hard  labor  under  constraint.  The 
labor  and  vagrancy  laws,  ostensibly  for  white  and 
black  alike,  were  so  executed  as  to  reach  the  freedmen 
only,  and  indeed  to  many  of  them  the  liberty  granted 
by  our  amended  Constitution  was  thus  to  all  intents 
and  purposes  overborne  and  crushed  by  hostile  State 
action. 

As  soon  as  Congress  met,  Southern  senators  and 
representatives  elect  from  the  insurrectionary  States 
were  on  hand  at  the  doors  of  each  House  waiting  for 
admission  and  recognition.  But  this  thirty-ninth  Con¬ 
gress  had  taken  fire.  The  Executive,  so  Congressmen 
alleged,  had  largely  encroached  upon  its  proper  prov¬ 
ince.  The  members  of  both  Houses  were  too  impatient 
even  to  wait  for  the  President’s  message.  Combating 
resolutions  were  at  once  introduced  and  passed,  ap¬ 
pointing  a  joint  reconstruction  committee  of  fifteen 
members  to  inquire  into  the  condition  of  the  States 
which  claimed  to  be  reconstructed,  and  to  report 
whether  any  of  them  were  entitled  to  representation 
in  Congress,  “  with  leave  to  report  at  any  time  by  bill 
or  otherwise.” 

The  contest  that  here  began  between  that  Congress 


President  Johnson’s  Reconstruction 

and  President  Johnson,  with  all  the  Southern  legis¬ 
latures  involved,  affords  a  piece  of  history  of  deepest 
interest,  and  subsequently  it  greatly  affected  the  exist¬ 
ence  and  operations  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau.  The 
life  of  that  Bureau  was  to  terminate  by  law  one  year 
after  the  close  of  the  war.  By  the  most  favorable  in¬ 
terpretation  that  one  year  could  not  extend  beyond 
the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1866.  The  necessity 
for  the  protection  which  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau  would 
give  became  more  and  more  apparent.  Every  report 
received  from  our  agents  bore  evidences  of  troubles 
then  existing  and  apprehended. 

The  words  of  the  assistant  commissioner  of  North 
Carolina,  Colonel  Whittlesey,  were  significant.  They 
found  a  veritable  echo  in  the  reports  of  other  assist¬ 
ants  and  subassistants  throughout  the  South. 

Writing  from  Raleigh,  December  1st,  he  said:  “  But 
it  is  evident  all  over  the  South  that  the  colored  race 
cannot  be  safely  left  in  the  hands  of  the  late  masters 
or  the  Southern  people.  Just  as  sure  as  that  is  done, 
such  oppressive  laws  will  be  enacted  that  the  blacks 
will  be  driven  to  desperation  and  the  scenes  lately 
witnessed  in  Jamaica  will  be  reenacted  in  many  sec¬ 
tions  of  our  own  country.” 

He  gave  instances  of  outrages  committed  against 
loyal  people  because  of  their  loyalty.  This  was  done 
in  places  where  the  military  had  been  withdrawn.  A 
young  man  was  threatened  and  stoned  because  he  had 
opened  a  “  nigger  ”  school.  Whittlesey  added :  “  I  do 
hope  that  Congress  will  grasp  the  whole  subject  and 
show  itself  master  of  the  situation.  No  legislation 
for  the  freedmen  should  be  allowed — it  is  not  consist¬ 
ent  with  the  republican  form  of  government.  All  laws 
should  apply  to  all  races  alike.  Give  equal  rights  to 

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whites  and  blacks ;  impose  the  same  taxes,  the  same 
duties,  the  same  penalties  for  crime,  and  then  execute 
the  laws  with  simple  justice;  and  the  result  will  be 
peace,  safety,  and  prosperity.  .  .  .  But  the  white 
people  in  this  State  are  not  yet  ready  to  treat  black 
men  justly.  Therefore,  the  Federal  Government  ought 
to  retain  control.  Our  military  force  ought  to  be  in¬ 
creased  and  not  reduced.” 

Early  in  this,  the  last  session  of  the  thirty-ninth 
Congress,  Senator  Trumbull  of  Illinois,  instead  of 
simply  sending  for  me  as  would  have  been  customary, 
kindly  came  to  my  office  and  studied  the  operations 
of  the  Bureau.  I  was  then  striving  to  carry  out  the 
existing  law,  and  realized  how  essential  to  the  inter¬ 
ests  of  the  freedmen  it  was  to  extend  the  time  of  its 
operation.  It  was  indeed  important  for  the  sake  of 
humanity  that  that  continued  operation  should  obtain, 
not  only  in  the  cotton,  but  in  the  border  States.  I 
further  believed  and  desired  that  the  recent  slaves 
should  attain  to  all  the  rights  of  freemen  before  the 
existing  protection  of  the  general  Government  should 
be  withdrawn  from  them.  I  had  been  much  hampered 
by  the  instructions  of  the  President  himself,  who  had 
now  gradually  drifted  into  positive  opposition  to  the 
Bureau  law — a  law  that  he  was  bound  by  his  oath  of 
office  to  execute,  but  one  that  his  process  of  reconstruc¬ 
tion  had  caused  to  be  violated  in  the  spirit,  if  not  in 
the  letter,  so  as  to  render  it  nugatory.  This  worthy 
senator,  always  of  a  conservative  turn,  warmly  took 
the  freedmen’s  part.  I  well  remember  those  nights  at 
my  headquarters,  for  Mr.  Trumbull’s  thoughts  deeply 
impressed  me.  In  a  subsequent  speech  he  declared  the 
freedmen’s  condition  to  be  “  abject,  forlorn,  helpless, 
and  hopeless.” 


280 


President  Johnson’s  Reconstruction 

January  5,  1866,  he  introduced  in  the  Senate  a  new 
Freedmen’s  Bureau  bill.  On  the  12th  of  the  same 
month  it  was  brought  up  for  discussion,  when  he  ex¬ 
plained  what  he  wished  to  accomplish  with  it:  (1)  An 
essential  extension  beyond  the  one  year  to  he  termi¬ 
nated  by  a  future  Act  of  Congress.  (2)  That  it  should 
apply  to  the  whole  country  wherever  were  the  benefi¬ 
ciaries;  (3)  That  the  President  should  give  them  land 
by  reserving  not  exceeding  3,000,000  acres  from  settle¬ 
ment  or  sale  in  certain  Southern  States  where  public 
lands  still  remained;  (4)  That  General  Sherman’s  pos¬ 
sessory  titles  on  the  sea  islands  be  made  real;  and 
(5),  more  important  still,  that  when  discriminations 
against  negroes  were  made  Bureau  officers  and  agents 
should  take  and  hold  jurisdiction  of  the  offenses. 

Much  feeling  and  bitterness  were  evolved  in  the 
discussion  that  followed  the  senator’s  statements. 
Yet  all  hindering  amendments  were  voted  down,  and 
January  25th,  the  bill  passed  the  Senate  by  27  major¬ 
ity.  In  the  House  there  was  a  like  fiery  discussion. 
The  hill  was  amended  so  as  to  limit  it  to  sections  of 
the  country  where  the  habeas  corpus  remained  sus¬ 
pended  on  February  1,  1866. 

The  Senate  removed  the  amendment,  so  that  the 
original  bill  passed  both  Houses  and  February  10th 
went  to  the  President.  He  returned  it  with  a  veto.  He 
objected  to  thus  legislating  without  the  new  represen¬ 
tatives  and  senators  from  the  South.  He  declared  that 
the  hill  interfered  with  the  local  administration  of  jus¬ 
tice;  that  it  was  unconstitutional  for  the  general  Gov¬ 
ernment  to  support  indigent  persons;  that  it  was  un¬ 
reasonable  to  make  provision  for  a  class  or  color ;  that 
it  was  extravagantly  expensive,  there  being  $11,745,- 
000,  according  to  the  commissioner’s  estimates  for  the 

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current  year,  and  likely  under  the  bill  to  be  double  that 
amount — “  greater  than  the  entire  yearly  administra¬ 
tion  of  John  Quincy  Adams.” 

The  Senate  did  not  get  a  two-thirds  vote  to  over¬ 
come  the  veto,  several  senators  having  changed  their 
attitude  regarding  it,  so  that  Trumbull’s  bill  failed 
to  become  a  law.  But  in  the  House  the  persistent 
chairman  of  the  Freedmen’s  committee,  Mr.  Eliot,  very 
soon  introduced  a  new  Bureau  bill,  from  which  he  had 
removed  several  objections  made  by  those  senators 
who  refused  to  vote  for  the  first  bill  over  the  veto. 
The  duration  he  fixed  at  two  years ;  he  left  out  the  sea 
island  clause,  and  he  reduced  the  acres  of  public  lands 
to  1,000,000.  This  measure  went  through  both  Houses 
and  was  vetoed  like  the  others  for  similar  reasons. 
But  this  time  both  Houses  passed  the  measure  over 
the  President’s  veto,  and  it  became  a  law  July  16,  1866. 
The  attitude  of  President  Johnson  and  of  the  leading 
Southern  whites,  together  with  the  apparent  inability 
of  Congress  to  enact  a  law  to  which  he  and  his  new 
friends  objected,  created,  during  those  six  months  of 
trial,  prior  to  the  passage  of  this  measure,  great  anx¬ 
iety  and  apprehension.  Still,  all  officers  and  agents, 
cooperating  with  the  small  military  garrisons  in  their 
vicinity,  had  worked  on  energetically  and  hopefully 
to  meet  and  overcome  the  increasing  difficulties  of  the 
situation. 

By  November  it  was  evident  that  the  new  law  had 
had  a  salutary  effect.  Aside  from  its  relation  to  the 
business  interests  of  the  Bureau,  which  were  difficult 
to  manage  under  the  uncertain  tenure  of  the  previous 
law,  it  served  to  cheer  the  freed  people  throughout  the 
entire  South,  to  increase  their  confidence  in  the  general 
Government,  to  give  new  stimulus  and  a  firmer  tone 

282 


President  Johnson’s  Reconstruction 

to  industrial  and  agricultural  enterprises,  and  to  im¬ 
part  strength  to  the  hope  of  justice;  a  law  less  com¬ 
prehensive  and  explicit  would  have  been  insufficient. 
Under  the  new  provisions  Maryland  and  Kentucky 
were  now  embraced  and  assistant  commissioners  ap¬ 
pointed.  The  freed  people  of  those  States  had  become 
an  important  consideration.  Most  of  them  were  will¬ 
ing  and  anxious  to  labor ;  yet  very  many  had  required 
the  protection  of  a  powerful  agency  to  shield  them 
from  the  imposition  of  employers  and  cruelty  of  ene¬ 
mies,  and  the  unfairness  of  courts  constituted  and 
held  under  old  laws.  When  nothing  else  could  be  done, 
it  was  something  for  an  accused  negro  to  have  at  least 
the  counsel  of  a  Bureau  officer  as  a  friend  present  in 
court. 

The  most  annoying  things  that  I,  as  commissioner, 
encountered,  and  they  were  hitherto  unceasing,  were 
the  complaints  made  to  President  Johnson  against 
officers  and  agents  and  referred  to  me  for  examination 
and  correction.  Any  agent  who  took  the  part  of  the 
freedmen  against  a  Southern  planter,  especially  one 
who  had  the  hardihood  to  arrest  a  white  man  for  mis¬ 
using  a  negro,  was  traduced,  and  often,  I  am  sorry 
to  say,  his  discharge  was  brought  about.  The  Presi¬ 
dent  was  very  anxious  to  be  rid  of  every  prominent 
officer  who  was  reported  to  have  been  long  the  f reed- 
men’s  friend.  In  his  eyes  assistant  commissioners, 
such  as  Mr.  Conway,  Colonel  Brown,  Generals  Whittle¬ 
sey,  Saxton,  Samuel  Thomas,  and  Absalom  Baird, 
were  too  pronounced  in  behalf  of  those  assailed;  they 
seemed  to  be  friends  of  the  so-called  carpet-baggers, 
i.  e.,  immigrants  from  the  North,  and  of  Southern 
Unionists  and  negroes ;  and  many  subagents  also  were 
accused  of  a  like  attitude.  They  were  too  much  the 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

advocates  of  tlieir  wards  to  suit  the  situation.  As  I 
was  obliged  to  execute  the  law  under  the  direction  of 
his  Excellency,  little  by  little  his  power  made  itself 
felt.  To  give  my  work  the  utmost  opportunity  to  suc¬ 
ceed  I  came  to  the  conclusion,  first,  that  all  Govern¬ 
ment  agencies  within  a  given  State  must  work  in  har¬ 
mony,  and  so  I  recommended  to  the  President  that  the 
functions  of  the  military  commander  and  of  the  assist¬ 
ant  commissioner  in  each  State  be  exercised  by  the 
same  officer.  To  this  he  gladly  assented.  It  was 
early  done  in  Virginia.  General  Alfred  H.  Terry,  the 
new  department  commander,  became  also  the  assist¬ 
ant  commissioner  for  that  State.  He  took  his  prede¬ 
cessor  in  the  Bureau,  Colonel  Brown,  on  his  staff  and 
so  operated  all  Bureau  work  through  him,  and  soon 
that  arrangement  prevailed  throughout  other  depart¬ 
ments.  Next,  I  worked  to  make  each  military  subdivi¬ 
sion  coincident  with  the  Bureau  subdistrict.  Terry’s 
department,  the  State  of  Virginia,  was  divided  into 
eight  subdistricts  with  an  officer  in  charge  of  each. 
Then  I  carefully  instructed  subordinates  that,  touch¬ 
ing  all  subjects  of  a  military  character,  the  agents  were 
to  be  under  the  direction  of  State  department  com¬ 
manders. 

The  Bureau  officer  acted  in  the  same  manner  as  an 
officer  of  engineers  building  a  fort  might  do,  reporting 
on  all  matters  of  construction  directly  to  the  chief  of 
engineers  at  Washington,  but  at  the  same  time  being 
the  engineer  officer  on  the  staff  of  a  local  commander. 

Fortunately  for  me  the  Secretary  of  War,  Mr. 
Stanton,  and  General  Grant,  the  commander  of  all 
the  geographical  departments  and  garrisons,  were 
friendly  to  my  work;  it  was,  therefore,  not  difficult  to 
secure  in  that  way  unity  of  organization  and  action; 

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President  Johnson’s  Reconstruction 

it  was  easy  enough  in  and  near  all  towns  actually 
garrisoned,  and  in  places  which  were  reached  by  rail. 

Perhaps  the  needs,  the  hopes,  the  fears,  the  fail¬ 
ures,  and  such  progress  as  was  made  in  the  Bureau 
work  for  1866  may  be  best  illustrated  by  some  of  the 
work  before  the  courts  that  year. 

General  C.  H.  Howard,  who  had  succeeded  General 
Eaton  in  the  District  of  Columbia  and  vicinity,  found 
it  next  to  impossible  to  get  the  courts  to  allow  the  tes¬ 
timony  of  colored  witnesses  anywhere  in  Maryland  un¬ 
til  the  effect  of  the  United  States  Civil  Rights  Law, 
recently  enacted,  which  forbade  such  distinction,  came 
into  play.  Upon  a  case  of  great  outrage,  committed 
by  a  white  man  upon  a  negro,  where  the  Bureau  agent 
brought  the  white  man  to  trial  and  the  white  man  was 
condemned  and  sentenced,  an  appeal  was  taken  before 
Judge  Bowie  of  the  Maryland  Court  of  Appeals,  and 
the  constitutionality  of  the  Civil-Rights-Law  called  in 
question.  Judge  Bowie,  to  our  joy,  July  2d,  decided 
that  colored  witnesses  were  competent,  and  that  the 
Civil-Rights-Law  in  this  respect  was  constitutional. 
After  that  happy  decision  warrants  were  issued  on  the 
testimony  of  negroes.  But  the  agents  now  found  an¬ 
other  obstacle.  Constables  refused  to  serve  subpoenas 
for  such  witnesses,  and  even  when  colored  men  did 
testify,  the  prejudice  of  jurymen  gave  little  or  no 
weight  to  their  testimony. 

In  North  Carolina  General  Robinson,  now  in  com¬ 
mand,  delayed  the  transfer  of  cases  for  trial  to  the 
civil  courts,  especially  those  where  whites  had  com¬ 
mitted  fraud,  injury,  or  violence  upon  persons  of 
color.  In  July  the  governor  wrote  him:  “  There  now 
exists  under  the  laws  of  this  State  no  discrimination 
in  the  administration  of  justice  to  free  persons  of 

285 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

color.”  The  general  then  directed  the  reference  of 
all  cases  to  the  county  and  State  authorities,  with  the 
single  exception  of  the  claims  for  wages  due  under 
contracts  witnessed  by  Bureau  officials.  These  ad¬ 
mitted  of  no  delay,  and  the  agents  adjudicated  them  as 
before.  It  was  indeed  better  for  both  parties.  But 
still  in  cases  of  neglect,  where  the  civil  tribunals 
failed  to  act,  Bureau  officers  were  directed  to  make 
arrests  where  the  freedmen  were  concerned,  and  detain 
the  criminals  till  a  proper  court  should  be  ready  to 
try  them.  The  Bureau  exhibit  for  this  State  for  Au¬ 
gust  was  not  very  reassuring.  Forty-nine  cases  were 
shown  of  assault,  whipping,  false  imprisonment,  shoot¬ 
ing,  and  other  outrages  against  blacks,  with  but  one  of 
a  negro  against  a  white  man.  Many  more  reports 
of  such  outrages  were  made  directly  to  the  civil  au¬ 
thorities,  embracing  assault  and  battery,  rape,  church 
burning,  arson,  and  murder.  The  civil  courts,  how¬ 
ever,  as  a  rule  were  keeping  faith.  The  offenders  had 
been  required  to  give  bonds  and  so  held  to  answer  the 
charges.  General  Bobinson  was  sanguine  of  the  fu¬ 
ture.  He  believed  that  after  time  enough  had  elapsed 
for  new  adjustments  between  the  races  “  mutual  con¬ 
fidence  would  be  restored.” 

General  Tillson  was  a  conservative  and  liarmonizer, 
leaning  possibly  to  the  side  of  the  white  employers; 
he  was  this  year  of  the  opinion  that  the  Georgia  civil 
courts  were  disposed  to  do  justice  to  the  freed  people, 
but  unfortunately  the  jurors,  selected  from  a  class  who 
hated  the  negroes,  attached  little  weight  to  negro  testi¬ 
mony.  Even  Tillson  finally  saw  and  believed  that  con¬ 
siderable  time  must  elapse  before  the  colored  people 
could  enjoy  substantial  equality  before  the  law;  yet 
the  having  a  Bureau  officer  at  hand  to  interpose  as  a 

286 


President  Johnson’s  Reconstruction 


friend  had  so  far  affected  the  actions  of  white  citi¬ 
zens  that  acts  of  injustice  and  oppression  were  less 
numerous.  Planters  looked  to  Bureau  officers  to  make 
their  laborers  reliable ;  and  freedmen  sought  their  aid 
also  to  obtain  their  wages. 

General  Swayne,  contrary  to  his  first  expectations, 
a  little  later  found  the  Alabama  legislators  anything 
but  fair  and  just.  He  said :  “  The  vagrant  law  of 
Alabama  operates  most  iniquitously  upon  the  freed¬ 
men.  In  terms,  the  law  makes  no  distinction  on  ac¬ 
count  of  color,  but  in  practice  the  distinction  is  invari¬ 
able.  I  am  satisfied  that  the  law  would  be  annulled  if 
fairly  tested.  I  have  taken  up  three  classes  under  it 
by  habeas  corpus,  but  in  every  case  the  persons  were 
discharged  for  informality  in  the  commitment  with¬ 
out  reaching  the  merits  of  the  case.”  So  many  griev¬ 
ances  occurred  that  even  Swayne,  with  whom  the  good 
governor  sought  to  cooperate,  was  forced  in  several 
of  the  worst  localities  to  reestablish  Bureau  courts. 

General  Absalom  Baird  in  his  last  message  in  Sep¬ 
tember  indicated  a  bad  outlook  for  Louisiana.  Brutal 
conduct  in  distant  parishes  remained  uncorrected  for 
want  of  military  force.  The  perpetrators  were  law¬ 
less  and  irresponsible  white  men;  they  were  the  terror 
of  both  property  holders  and  laborers.  They  were 
countenanced  by  the  community  either  through  sym¬ 
pathy  or  fear.  Baird  added  that  the  Civil-Rights-Law 
was  to  some  extent  having  a  good  effect,  restraining 
those  who  had  hitherto  been  disposed  to  treat  United 
States  laws  with  contempt.  Several  magistrates  were 
under  arrest  for  violating  its  provisions. 

General  Sheridan,  following  Baird  in  Louisiana, 
rather  heightens  the  adverse  picture :  “  Homicides  are 
frequent  in  some  localities ;  sometimes  they  are  investi- 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

gated  by  a  coroner’s  jury,  which  justifies  the  act  and 
releases  the  perpetrator;  iu  other  instances,  when  the 
proof  comes  to  the  knowledge  of  an  agent  of  the  Bu¬ 
reau,  the  parties  are  held  to  bail  in  a  nominal  sum, 
but  the  trial  of  a  white  man  for  the  killing  of  a  freed- 
man  can,  in  the  existing  state  of  society  in  this  State, 
be  nothing  more  or  less  than  a  farce.” 

In  not  a  single  instance,  however,  when  contracts 
had  been  entered  into  between  planters  and  freedmen 
in  the  mode  prescribed  by  the  Bureau,  had  a  com¬ 
plaint  been  subsequently  made  by  either  party  to  the 
contract,  while  in  a  large  proportion  of  other  contracts 
bitter  complaints  were  constant.  The  reason  was 
plain  enough.  In  all  those  approved  by  a  Bureau 
officer,  the  terms  were  first  carefully  explained  to  both 
parties ;  and  the  whole  power  of  the  Bureau  would  be 
afterwards  exerted  against  the  party  attempting  to 
violate  an  approved  contract. 

In  Mississippi  General  T.  J.  Wood,  an  able  divi¬ 
sion  commander  during  the  war,  always  of  a  conserv¬ 
ative  turn  of  mind,  gave  a  statement  of  the  condition 
of  affairs  which  was  not  very  encouraging.  Grievous 
outrages  had  been  committed.  A  class  of  citizens 
called  “  regulators  ”  appeared  in  several  States  as  if 
by  concert  of  action ;  the  fear  of  them  in  some  parts  of 
Mississippi  was  so  great  that  peaceably  disposed  in¬ 
habitants  were  afraid  to  give  the  information  neces¬ 
sary  for  their  detection  and  punishment.  The  regu¬ 
lators  shot  freedmen  without  provocation,  drove  them, 
unpaid,  from  plantations  and  committed  other  crimes. 
So  many  outrages  of  this  kind  were  perpetrated  that 
General  Wood  at  first  wondered  that  the  better  por¬ 
tion  of  the  community  did  not  take  decided  measures 
against  the  guilty. 


288 


President  Johnson’s  Reconstruction 

The  general,  however,  said  in  abatement:  “  We 
shall  not  do  them  (the  whites)  justice  unless  we  re¬ 
member  that,  with  very  few  exceptions,  they  were  fully 
persuaded  that  slavery  was  right  and  beneficial  to  the 
colored  man,  as  it  was  profitable  and  pleasant  to  the 
ruling  class.  They  felt  injured  by  the  emancipation; 
their  profits  and  pride  were  assailed  and  destroyed. 
In  the  midst  of  the  excitement,  hurry,  confusion,  and 
active  enmity  of  the  times  nine  tenths  of  the  white 
people  could  not  be  expected  to  attribute  the  change  to 
anything  but  a  spirit  of  revenge.  ...  It  was  to  he 
expected  that  the  ignorant,  violent,  and  unprincipled 
portion  of  these  people,  being  additionally  demoral¬ 
ized  by  the  war,  should  give  vent  to  the  evil  within 
them  by  committing  outrages.  On  the  other  side  it 
can  surprise  no  one  that  the  freedmen  should  be  some¬ 
what  unsettled,  inclined  to  avoid  labor  to  which  all 
their  lives  had  been  devoted  under  stern  compulsion, 
and  that  they  should  misapprehend  their  rights  and 
duties.” 

The  deliberate  murder  April  30th  of  that  year  of  a 
worthy  officer,  Lieutenant  J.  B.  Blanding,  Twenty-first 
Regiment  Veteran  Reserve  Corps,  while  walking  on 
the  street  at  Grenada,  Miss.,  and  attempts  upon  the 
lives  of  other  men  who  had  been  faithful  and  fearless 
in  the  discharge  of  their  delicate  and  dangerous  duties, 
gave  rise  to  increased  anxiety  everywhere  and  seemed 
to  necessitate  an  increase  of  military  force. 

General  Clinton  B.  Fisk  had  good  results  in  Ten¬ 
nessee  in  1866.  The  State  legislature  took  liberal  ac¬ 
tion  in  matters  of  vagrancy,  or  apprenticing  and  con¬ 
tracts  which  affected  the  freedmen;  they  modified  the 
old  laws  to  conform  to  the  Thirteenth  Amendment  of 
the  Constitution  and  to  the  Civil-Rights-Law.  Before 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

General  Fisk,  in  September,  was  relieved  by  General 
J.  R.  Lewis,  lie  took  occasion  by  a  circular,  widely  pub¬ 
lished,  to  transfer  all  cases  to  the  civil  officers  elected 

/ 

by  the  people,  to  call  their  attention  afresh  to  the 
United  States  laws  involved,  and  to  entreat  them  to  lay 
aside  all  feelings  of  prejudice,  in  order  that  the  State 
laws  might  be  administered  in  such  a  manner  as  not 
to  compel  a  return  to  military  courts.  We  all  believed 
then  that  greater  security  for  the  life  and  property 
of  the  freed  people  existed  in  Tennessee  than  in  any 
other  of  the  late  Confederate  States. 

Kentucky  had  meanwhile  been  full  of  trouble.  The 
“  regulators  ”  had  been  for  some  time  committing  hor¬ 
rible  outrages  in  the  southeastern  districts.  Old  laws 
and  old  customs  like  flogging  prevailed  in  many  coun¬ 
ties.  The  department  commander,  General  Jeff.  C. 
Davis,  who  also  came  to  be  the  assistant  commissioner 
for  Kentucky,  had  been  previously  reported  as  hostile 
to  negroes,  so  that  I  was  fearful  that  matters  there 
might  grow  worse.  But  I  was  greatly  mistaken. 
Davis  said :  “  The  laws  shall  be  executed  at  whatever 
cost.”  He  settled  difficulties  between  the  negroes  and 
white  men  with  satisfaction  to  both,  and  punished  the 
lawless  with  such  promptitude  that  even  the  bloody 
and  much-feared  “  regulators  ”  were  obliged,  where  he 
could  reach  their  haunts,  to  suspend  their  base  work 
of  terrorism  which  they  had  undertaken  among  the 
freedmen  and  their  teachers. 

General  J.  W.  Sprague,  most  manly  and  fearless 
of  men,  in  October  of  1866  was  no  longer  sanguine 
for  Arkansas  in  the  line  of  justice.  The  legislature 
did  not  grant  the  negroes  their  rights.  He  feared  to 
give  cases  to  State  officers  on  account  of  their  mani¬ 
fest  prejudice  and  unfairness.  He  could  not,  he  con- 

290 


President  Johnson’s  Reconstruction 

fessed,  carry  out  his  Bureau  instructions  without  the 
troops.  Murders  of  freedmen  and  other  crimes 
against  them  were  on  the  increase.  Civil  authorities 
utterly  failed  to  arrest  and  punish  offenders.  Tire 
clouds  were  growing  thicker  and  thicker.  There  were 
many  thefts,  robberies,  assaults,  and  murders;  some 
of  them  of  the  most  brutal  and  unprovoked  character, 
where  not  a  finger  had  been  raised  by  citizens  or  law 
officers  to  bring  the  guilty  parties  to  justice. 

And  yet  the  good  General  gave  us  a  gleam  of  light 
when  he  reported  that  the  freedmen  were  working 
well  and  abiding  by  their  contracts  in  good  faith.  The 
Bureau  officers  still  held  control  of  the  registration 
of  laborers  and  supervised  the  contracts,  so  that  the 
results  in  that  quarter  were  promising. 

The  assistant  commissioner  in  Virginia  found  some 
improvement  in  the  feelings  of  the  whites  toward  the 
freedmen,  but  alleged  weakness  and  neglect  on  the  part 
of  State  officials  touching  heinous  crimes.  Murders 
and  robberies  were  committed  and  nobody  was  ar¬ 
rested  and  brought  to  trial  except  through  the  agency 
of  United  States  officers,  most  of  them  of  our  Bureau. 

In  three  counties  it  had  been  necessary  to  reestab- 
lish  the  Bureau  courts  to  prevent  insurrection  among 
the  freedmen,  who  threatened  retaliation  for  the 
wrongs  which  they  suffered  from  local  civil  courts. 

General  J.  B.  Kiddoo,  the  Texas  commander,  found 
little  respect  for  any  law  in  the  northeast  counties. 
The  legislature  had  delayed  the  necessary  legislation; 
freedmen  could  not  yet  testify  in  spite  of  the  advent 
of  the  Civil-Rights-Law ;  great  distinctions  were  con¬ 
stantly  made  in  all  dealings  with  them.  His  chief 
troubles  consisted  in  his  efforts  to  protect  them  from 
violence;  he  entreated  for  more  troops  for  those  re- 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

moter  districts  where  the  greater  number  of  outrages 
occurred.  As  in  Arkansas,  where  the  interests  of  the 
larger  planters  came  in  play,  the  Bureau  agents  be¬ 
came  a  help,  a  necessity.  A  lack  of  confidence  existed 
between  the  planters  and  freedmen,  until  the  assistant 
commissioner  had  successfully  inaugurated  a  system 
of  contracts  by  which  the  planters  could  place  some 
reliance  upon  the  steadiness  of  labor,  and  the  freed¬ 
men  have  security  for  their  pay. 

These  illustrations  all  through  the  South  show  our 
work  in  creating  law-abiding  communities  in  which 
fair  local  laws  were  slowly  extending  to  the  protection 
of  negroes.  Judicial  proceeding  was  in  a  transition 
state  everywhere  and  needed  careful  watching  and 
continued  experiment  under  friendly  supervision, 
such  as  our  officers  uniformly  gave.  How  much  vio¬ 
lence,  fraud,  and  oppression,  how  much  idleness,  theft, 
and  perhaps  insurrection  our  agency  prevented  can 
never  be  measured.  Other  nations  have  not  succeeded 
so  well  in  relieving  the  shock  to  society  when  they 
were  passing  from  slavery  to  freedom. 

The  schools  were  increasing  and  were  in  much  bet¬ 
ter  shape  than  in  1865  and  yet  there  were  only  965 
organized  schools,  1,405  teachers,  and  90,778  pupils. 
We  knew  that  there  ought  to  be  ten  times  as  many. 
It  was  but  a  beginning — a  drop  in  the  bucket — a 
nucleus — an  object  lesson.  The  demonstration,  how¬ 
ever,  showed  that  it  was  practicable  to  educate  the  chil¬ 
dren  of  negroes. 


292 


CHAPTER  LIII 


THE  BUREAU  WORK  IN  1866 ;  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON^ 

FIRST  OPPOSITION 

]V/r  AJOR  FOWLER,  who  had,  as  his  main  business, 
to  hasten  the  return  of  houses  and  lands  to  par¬ 
doned  owners,  was  given  in  addition  the  Claim  Divi¬ 
sion.  Its  origin  was  this:  At  the  office  in  Washington 
constant  complaints  had  been  received  from  our  agents 
that  discharged  colored  soldiers  were  constantly  de¬ 
frauded  by  unprincipled  men  of  amounts  due  them 
from  the  Government.  Some  were  told  that  they  had 
dues  when  there  were  none.  The  deceivers  would  get 
from  the  individual  soldier  discharge  papers  and  re¬ 
quire  a  fee  for  their  return.  Soldiers  would  wait  days 
and  weeks  in  towns  and  cities  for  promised  action 
touching  bounties  and  prize  money,  often  when  the 
same  had  no  existence  in  fact. 

Again,  in  the  thousands  of  cases  where  there  were 
actual  dues  exorbitant  fees  would  be  taken  in  settle¬ 
ment,  totally  regardless  of  all  law  or  reason.  The 
gross  ignorance  of  the  mass  of  colored  soldiers  ren¬ 
dered  them  especial  objects  of  such  extortion  and 
fraud,  and  the  numerous  shrewd  transactions  against 
them  were  usually  so  concealed  as  to  render  it  exceed¬ 
ingly  difficult  to  detect  and  expose  the  guilty.  To  pre¬ 
vent  these  soldiers  far  and  near  from  being  uselessly 
disturbed  in  their  work;  to  forestall  and  prevent  all 
such  frauds  in  future  and  to  enable  those  entitled  to 

293 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

do  so  to  obtain  tlieir  prize  and  bounty  money  and 
other  bona  fide  dues  that  might  be  lost  to  them,  this 
Claim  Division  had  its  birth  and  was  regularly  set  on 
foot.  It  began  its  work  March  17,  1866,  and  by  our 
extensive  agency  which  penetrated  every  State,  great 
numbers  of  both  soldiers  and  sailors  of  the  freedmen 
class  were,  without  charge  to  the  beneficiaries,  helped 
and  benefited.  It  was  the  efficient  work  done  here  that 
led  to  the  Act  of  Congress  which  the  next  year  placed 
all  remaining  payments  of  bounties,  prize  money,  and 
unsettled  claims  of  colored  soldiers  and  sailors  under 
the  charge  of  this  Bureau. 

An  incident  showing  the  variety  of  our  burdens 
was  the  making  of  the  Bureau  by  Congress  the  channel 
of  expending  an  appropriation  of  $25,000  for  the  im¬ 
mediate  relief  of  destitute  whites  and  blacks  in  the  Dis¬ 
trict  of  Columbia. 

In  the  early  spring,  there  suddenly  appeared  an 
extraordinary  destitution  in  Washington  and  George¬ 
town,  caused  by  the  overplus  of  population  which  no 
effort  on  the  part  of  the  Government  had  been  able  to 
reduce.  In  this  destitution  there  were  more  white 
people  than  negroes  who  were  in  a  starving  condition. 
April  17,  1866,  Congress  made  that  special  appropri¬ 
ation  and  charged  me,  the  commissioner  of  the  Bureau, 
with  its  disbursement. 

With  a  view  to  have  others  share  with  me  the  re¬ 
sponsibility,  a  special  relief  commission  of  six  mem¬ 
bers  was  constituted  by  me  and  placed  under  the 
immediate  supervision  of  the  assistant  commissioner 
of  the  home  district.  Surgeon  Robert  Reyburn  was 
chosen  as  the  president  of  the  commission.  By  using 
in  this  organization  officials  of  the  Bureau,  and  secur¬ 
ing  the  help  of  many  benevolent  citizens  besides  as 

294 


The  Bureau  Work  in  1866 


visiting  agents  without  pay,  the  assistant  commis¬ 
sioner  was  able  to  do  the  work  with  comparatively 
small  expenditures.  There  were  made  twenty-two 
subdistricts  and  a  visitor  appointed  for  each.  All  of 
these  except  two  performed  the  duty  gratuitously,  and 
our  officers  gave  them  great  credit  for  tlieir  assiduous 
and  self-sacrificing  labors.  The  destitute  fund  was 
expended  directly  in  small  sums  for  groceries,  cloth¬ 
ing,  fuel,  rentals,  medicines,  and  tlieir  careful  distri¬ 
bution  attended  to.  Probably  no  sudden  want  of  a 
destitute  multitude  was  ever  more  promptly  and  sat¬ 
isfactorily  met  and  relieved. 

Surgeon  Horner  of  the  Volunteer  Army  returned 
to  his  civil  practice  during  the  summer  prior  to  being 
honorably  mustered  out  of  service,  November  15th,  and 
our  Medical  Division  thereafter  came  under  the  charge 
of  Colonel  L.  A.  Edwards,  a  surgeon  in  the  army.  Both 
classes,  namely  refugees  and  freedmen,  including  the 
blind,  deaf  mutes,  insane  and  idiotic,  were  put  under 
him  and  faithfully  cared  for.  The  total  number  in 
all  the  country  under  medical  care  during  the  eleven 
months  prior  to  August  31,  1866,  was  of  refugees  5,781, 
of  freedmen  160,737.  Still,  there  remained  September 
1,  1866,  but  501  refugees  and  6,045  freed  people  ac¬ 
tually  in  hospital.  The  56  hospitals,  according  to  our 
plan,  were  reduced  during  the  year  to  46;  there  were, 
however,  established  a  number  of  dispensaries  at  dif¬ 
ferent  points  from  which  medicines  were  obtained. 
The  orphan  asylums  aided  were  reduced  to  five  with¬ 
out  reckoning  one  at  Richmond,  Va.,  and  another  at 
Lauderdale,  Miss.,  as  these  two  were  not  separate 
from  the  permanent  hospitals.  Prompt  and  energetic 
measures,  both  remedial  and  preventive,  were  invari¬ 
ably  adopted  whenever  any  contagion  or  epidemic 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

appeared  in  any  part  of  the  country.  Cholera  showed 
itself  at  several  points,  but  its  ravages  were  limited, 
and  diminished  far  more  than  could  have  been  antici¬ 
pated  ;  military  quarantine  of  all  seaports  and  Bureau 
surveillance  of  the  blacks  were  prompt  and  constant. 
Onr  medical  officers,  civil  and  military,  231  in  all,  dur¬ 
ing  the  year  were  reduced  to  128  at  its  close;  they 
prided  themselves  on  the  cheering  and  successful  re¬ 
sults  due  to  their  zeal  and  energy.  The  percentage 
of  mortality  among  the  vast  number  of  persons  treated 
was  for  the  refugees  but  three  per  cent.,  and  for  the 
freedmen  four  and  six  tenths  per  cent.;  it  was  quite 
an  advance  on  the  aggregate  average  of  the  year 
previous  of  nine  and  thirteen  per  cent,  for  both 
classes.  Thus  we  have  a  bird’s-eye  view  of  the  situa¬ 
tion  in  1866,  and  rejoice  at  a  good  work  done  for 
humanity. 

For  political  reasons,  however,  the  President  de¬ 
sired  to  put  before  the  people  a  very  different  view  of 
the  Bureau.  His  plan  of  reconstruction  of  the  South¬ 
ern  State  governments  had  been  discredited  by  Con¬ 
gress;  senators  and  members  of  the  House  applying 
for  seats  under  it  were  refused  admittance.  The  plan 
had  been  broached  of  giving  negroes  a  vote,  the  Bu¬ 
reau  to  be  the  means  of  preparing  them  for  the  suf¬ 
frage  and  protecting  them  in  it.  It  was  during  the  time 
that  the  new  Bureau  bill  was  being  debated  in  Con¬ 
gress  (May,  1866),  that  he  inaugurated  a  remarkable 
inspection  of  the  Bureau  in  the  South  by  two  officers 
in  the  interest  of  his  policy.  One  of  them,  General 
Steedman,  had  been  a  brave  soldier;  but  he  was  a 
rough  character  with  no  sympathy  for  negroes.  The 
other  had  been  my  adjutant  general  in  the  field,  and 
afterwards  a  long  time  in  my  Bureau.  He  was  a  kind, 

296 


The  Bureau  Work  in  1866 


upright  young  man,  hut  unaccountably  took  part  in 
this  attack  upon  the  Bureau  and  upon  the  administra¬ 
tion  of  some  of  our  best  subordinates.  The  two  men 
set  out,  reporters  with  them  for  the  press,  generally 
unfriendly  to  plans  of  reconstruction  favored  by  Con¬ 
gress.  They  passed  on  from  city  to  city  and  from 
place  to  place,  visiting  military  and  Bureau  headquar¬ 
ters  in  each  Southern  State,  and  sent  their  reports,  as 
critical  and  adverse  as  possible,  broadcast  through  the 
newspapers  to  the  entire  country. 

Before  this  operation  began,  General  Grant,  who 
had  to  some  extent  found  out  what  was  to  be  done, 
kindly  sent  for  me  and  said  substantially :  “  Howard, 
you  must  not  take  too  much  to  heart  or  as  against 
yourself  what  may  be  said  or  reported  before  long 
against  your  Bureau.”  I  did  not  at  first  very  well 
understand  what  he  meant,  till  the  noisy  and  preten¬ 
tious  inspection  of  Steedman  and  Fullerton  was  well 
on  foot. 

The  following  statements  of  mine  to  President 
Johnson,  given  August  23,  1866,  in  reference  to  this  in¬ 
spection,  portrays  the  Bureau  troubles  and  triumphs 
of  that  year.  “  The  last  report  of  Generals  Steedman 
and  Fullerton  of  an  inspection  of  the  Bureau  under 
my  charge  contains  so  many  statements  differing  from 
those  I  have  received  from  other  officers  and  assistant 
commissioners,  and  furnishes  deductions  so  widely 
varying  from  those  I  have  formed  and  offered,  that  I 
deem  it  my  duty  to  review  the  main  points  of  this  re¬ 
port;  and  more  especially  is  this  course  necessary 
for  me  that  I  have  been  assigned  to  duty  by  yourself, 
and  have  administered  the  Bureau  in  accordance  with 
your  instructions,  verbal  and  written,  keeping  con¬ 
stantly  in  view  a  thorough  and  practical  execution  of 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

the  law  by  which  my  officers  and  myself  have  been 
bound. 

“  The  ostensible  object  of  the  inspection  is  to  detect 
and  correct  abuses  of  administration  and  furnish  your¬ 
self  with  information  of  the  actual  state  of  things. 
Had  the  inspectors  made  a  thorough  examination  and 
report  to  yourself  or  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  in  ac¬ 
cordance  with  their  written  instructions,  so  that  I 
could  have  corrected  the  wrongdoings  of  individual 
agents  or  modified  any  policy  that  was  faulty,  I  would 
not  complain,  but  be  grateful  for  the  aid  and  encour¬ 
agement  thus  afforded.  This  method  of  inspection 
and  report  is  the  one  that  has  always  been  pursued  in 
the  departments  of  the  service  with  which  I  have  been 
connected. 

“  The  inspectors  have  pursued  an  extraordinary 
course.  I  understand  they  took  as  clerks  several 
newspaper  reporters,  who  gave  to  the  press  the  sub¬ 
stance  of  their  reports,  and  sometimes  the  reports 
themselves,  before  you  had  time  to  give  them  consid¬ 
eration.  The  effect  of  this  course  has  been  to  concen¬ 
trate  the  attention  of  the  public  upon  certain  individual 
acts  of  officers  and  agents,  or  accusations  against  them 
carelessly  drawn,  in  such  a  way  as  to  keep  the  faults 
committed,  and  not  the  good  done,  prominently  in  view. 

“  Some  things  they  have  held  up  as  criminal,  which 
were  not  so  in  realitv.  Erroneous  conclusions  have 
been  drawn  from  a  state  of  affairs  now  existing  in 
many  places,  for  which  the  Bureau  is  not  responsible, 
e.  g.,  they  charge  to  the  account  of  the  Bureau  all  the 
evils  of  the  labor  system  which  they  find,  while  they  at¬ 
tribute  to  the  State  governments  and  citizens,  in  great 
part,  the  good  accomplished.  Certainly  this  is  the  im¬ 
pression  received  from  reading  the  reports. 

298 


The  Bureau  Work  in  1866 


“  In  what  I  have  to  say  I  have  no  desire  to  screen 
my  officers  from  just  charges ;  in  fact,  I  have  taken  in¬ 
stant  measures  to  bring  to  trial  any  officer  against 
whom  there  seemed  to  be  any  well-founded  accusation. 
It  is  a  fact  well  worth  considering  here,  that  of  thir¬ 
teen  assistant  commissioners  there  was  hut  one  whom 
the  inspectors  were  able  to  condemn,  namely,  the  as¬ 
sistant  commissioner  of  North  Carolina;  and  he, 
though  held  up  to  the  country  as  a  liar  and  a  dishonest 
speculator,  has  been  acquitted  by  a  decision  of  a  fair 
and  honorable  court,  so  far  as  the  charges  were 
concerned. 

“  Again,  in  the  departments  of  Virginia  and  North 
Carolina,  of  over  two  hundred  agents,  accusations 
were  brought  against  ten  only,  seven  officers  and  three 
civilians.  The  majority  of  them  have  been  honorably 
acquitted  of  the  charges  preferred  against  them.  The 
Reverend  Mr.  Fitz,  of  such  terrible  notoriety,  who  was 
having  his  case  investigated  on  the  arrival  of  the  in¬ 
spectors,  proves  to  be  not  a  reverend,  but  a  young  man 
of  eighteen  years,  a  quartermaster’s  clerk  during  the 
war,  and  personally  guiltless  of  the  cruelties  imputed 
to  his  charge.  All  these  cases  will  soon  be  officially 
reported — I  need  not  refer  to  them  further. 

“  I  may  say,  however,  that  the  charge  against  an 
officer  of  putting  men  in  a  chain  gang  had  no  founda¬ 
tion  in  fact,  but  in  another  part  of  the  same  State  an¬ 
other  officer  specially  selected  by  the  inspectors  for 
unqualified  commendation  had  issued  an  order  to  place 
delinquents  as  vagrants  in  a  chain  gang.  .  .  . 

“  Their  final  objection  is  to  citizen  agents,  and  in 
order  to  reduce  expenses,  they  recommend  that  all 
such  agents  be  discharged — given  in  the  following 
language :  4  A  great  reduction  in  the  expenses  of  the 

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Bureau,  and  a  reform  which  would  render  it  far  less 
objectionable  than  it  is  now,  would  be  effected  by  the 
discontinuance  of  all  paid  employees  not  in  the  mili¬ 
tary  service  of  the  Government.’ 

“  I  assent  to  this  principle,  though  the  inspectors 
do  not  seem  to  do  so,  as  they  have  given  unqualified 
praise  to  the  administration  of  the  Bureau  in  Georgia, 
where  the  greatest  number  of  citizen  agents  are  em¬ 
ployed.  Could  I  obtain  details  from  the  army  I  should 
certainly  do  so;  but  the  smallness  of  the  military  force 
in  most  of  the  States  lias  rendered  it  impossible. 
They  next  speak  of  Georgia,  saying  that  the  amended 
laws  of  the  State  are  fully  as  liberal  as  those  of  any 
Northern  State,  and  place  the  negro  in  all  respects 
on  a  perfect  equality  with  a  white  man  as  to  his  civil 
rights,  conveying  the  impression  that  the  freedmen 
are  thoroughly  protected  under  the  execution  of  these 
laws. 

“  General  Tillson,  who  is  highly  commended  by  the 
inspectors,  and  who  is  known  to  be  a  man  of  integrity 
and  good  judgment,  in  a  late  report  to  me  says :  4  There 
are  many  instances  where,  through  the  prejudice  of 
the  people,  or  the  incompetency  of  the  magistrates, 
the  freedmen  are  denied  the  protection  of  the  law,  and 
where  the  interference  of  the  Bureau  is  absolutely  es¬ 
sential  to  secure  justice.  When  this  influence  has  been 
wisely  directed,  and  the  authority  of  the  Bureau 
brought  to  bear  firmly  but  kindly,  the  happiest  conse¬ 
quences  have  followed,  not  only  protecting  the  freed¬ 
men  in  individual  cases,  but  changing  the  tone  and 
temper  of  the  people,  so  as  to  prevent  the  recurrence 
of  acts  of  injustice  and  oppression.  The  continuance 
and  agency  of  the  Bureau  is  still  a  necessity.’ 

“  The  case  of  maladministration  of  Captain  Lewis 

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J.  Lambert  is  the  only  one  mentioned  among  two  hun¬ 
dred  and  seventy-three  agents.  This  will  be  thor¬ 
oughly  investigated  by  General  Tillson.  I  am  thank¬ 
ful  for  so  great  purity  of  administration  in  Georgia. 
I  may  say  here  with  reference  to  legal  justice,  that  the 
policy  pursued  constantly  has  been  to  transfer  juris¬ 
diction  to  civil  tribunals  wherever  there  was  a  pros¬ 
pect  of  its  impartial  exercise  under  just  laws;  in  fact, 
it  has  been  the  practice  in  most  Bureau  courts  to  use 
the  State  laws  when  no  distinction  exists  on  account 
of  color. 

“  No  fault  is  found  with  Alabama,  except  that  a  few 
officers  are  reported  as  engaged  in  planting. 

“  The  inspectors  must  mean  that  these  officers  have 
invested  some  of  their  private  funds  in  planting.  All 
I  can  say  is  that  a  great  many — in  fact  nearly  all — 
officers  of  the  Government  have  invested  their  funds 
in  planting  or  something  else.  If  they  have  not  pros¬ 
tituted  their  official  positions  for  private  gain  I  cannot 
complain,  though  I  have  lately  forbidden  such  invest¬ 
ments  within  the  limits  of  their  official  jurisdiction, 
in  order  to  avoid  even  the  appearance  of  evil. 

“  General  Wood,  assistant  commissioner  of  Missis¬ 
sippi,  is  commended  for  improving  upon  the  adminis¬ 
tration  of  Colonel  Samuel  Thomas.  The  policy  of  the 
latter  is  declared  not  calculated  to  produce  harmony 
between  the  races. 

“  In  this  statement,  the  inspectors  have  doubtless 
been  misinformed,  for  I  have  testimony  from  General 
Wood  and  from  inspectors  that  the  policy  pursued  by 
Colonel  Thomas  has  not  been  changed. 

“  They  next  admit  a  state  of  affairs  in  Mississippi 
that  demands  some  other  remedy  than  the  removal  of 
the  military  force,  that  is,  if  freedmen  and  peaceable 

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citizens  are  to  be  protected.  The  murder  of  a  United 
States  officer,  and  the  firing  upon  others  without  cause, 
are  admitted,  and  there  is  evidently  a  reign  of  terror 
in  portions  of  the  State.  .  .  . 

“  The  inspectors  complain  of  expenses  and  recom¬ 
mend  reduction  in  Louisiana.  They  allege  that  the 
main  part  of  the  money  has  been  expended  for  schools. 
Had  they  inquired  of  General  Baird  he  would  have 
told  them  that  as  soon  as  the  taxes  were  suspended  by 
your  order,  the  schools  were  closed  or  continued  as 
private  enterprises,  or  by  employers  of  freedmen  un¬ 
der  their  contract  stipulations. 

“  The  admirable  system  of  education  in  New  Orleans 
was  established  by  military  commanders  long  prior  to 
the  existence  of  the  Bureau.  No  facts  have  been  pre¬ 
sented  to  me  to  prove  the  statement  that  the  money 
under  Mr.  Conway,  the  late  assistant  commissioner, 
was  squandered  as  charged. 

“  The  corruption  of  a  few  officers  under  his  adminis¬ 
tration  may  possibly  be  true;  but  whether  so  or  not 
it  does  not  affect  the  present  administration  of  the 
Bureau  in  that  State. 

“  It  is  a  little  singular  that  officers  long  ago  relieved 
from  duty  should  be  chosen  as  exponents  of  the  pres¬ 
ent  management  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau. 

“  The  report  with  reference  to  Texas  rather  com¬ 
mends  than  censures  the  administration  in  that  State. 

“  One  officer,  Captain  Sloan,  is  condemned  for  per¬ 
jury,  and  for  his  conduct  in  office.  A  subsequent  ex¬ 
amination  of  his  case  has  furnished  a  more  favorable 
report.  The  case  will  have  a  thorough  investigation. 

“  Arkansas,  Kentucky,  and  Tennessee  were  not  vis¬ 
ited  by  the  inspectors,  and  it  is  fair  to  suppose  that 
the  administration  of  the  Bureau  in  those  States  is  as 

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it  has  been  represented  by  the  assistant  commissioners 
and  other  officers  and  by  reliable  citizens. 

“  It  should  be  noted,  with  regard  to  expenses,  that 
aside  from  commissary,  quartermaster,  and  medical 
issues,  the  entire  expenses  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau 
have  been  defrayed,  from  its  organization  up  to  July 
1st,  without  an  appropriation,  and  without  incurring 
a  debt.  The  quartermaster,  commissary,  and  medical 
issues  were  being  made  by  the  army  proper  when  I 
took  charge  of  the  Bureau,  and  have  been  reduced  as 
much  as  possible,  consistent  with  the  present  necessi¬ 
ties  of  the  people,  whites  and  blacks. 

“  I  now  come  to  by  far  the  most  important  part  of 
what  the  inspectors  have  to  say — the  summing  up  of 
their  conclusions  after  four  months,  inspection  of  the 
Bureau,  in  which  they  assert  that  there  is  an  entire 
absence  of  system  or  uniformity  in  its  constitution. 
They  have  never  asked  me  for  a  word  of  information 
with  reference  to  records,  reports,  and  orders ! 

“  They  have  made  no  examination  of  my  office,  asked 
no  reason  for  any  action  taken.  The  records  or  in¬ 
formation  they  desired  that  could  not  be  found  in  the 
offices  of  the  South  may  be  found  here.  What  would 
be  the  result  if  they  should  make  a  general  inspection 
of  the  quartermaster,  commissary,  or  other  depart¬ 
ments  in  the  same  way?  Those  officers  who  have  been 
relieved  or  were  beyond  their  reach,  are  supposed  to 
have  made  improper  dispositions  of  all  records  or  pa¬ 
pers  connected  with  their  offices.  This  is  all  wrong. 

“  There  is  not  a  bureau  in  Washington  with  a  more 
complete  set  of  reports,  books,  and  records,  than  can 
be  produced  in  this  office  at  any  time  for  inspection. 
They  attempt  to  prove  their  assertion  by  the  statement 
that  in  one  State  its  officers  exercised  judicial  powers ; 

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in  one  adjoining,  all  cases  were  referred  to  civil  au¬ 
thorities,  while  in  a  third  State  Bureau  officers  collect 
the  cases  and  turn  them  over  to  military  courts. 
Their  own  inspection  reports  will  refute  this.  In  the 
States  of  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  Mississippi,  Louisiana, 
Alabama,  Florida,  Virginia,  and  North  Carolina,  Bu¬ 
reau  agents  do  not  exercise  judicial  powers  of  any 
kind,  and  in  the  other  States  the  powers  exercised  by 
the  officers  of  the  Bureau  are  modified  by  the  feelings 
and  conduct  of  the  people  toward  the  freedmen.  They 
admit  there  is  a  great  difference  in  the  feelings  of 
whites  toward  the  blacks.  What  other  principle  more 
uniform  is  it  possible  to  adopt  than  to  regulate  the 
power  of  agents  of  the  Bureau  by  the  disposition  and 
conduct  of  the  people,  favoring  them  as  they  approxi¬ 
mate  equal  justice  ? 

“  It  will  be  seen  by  referring  to  the  regulations  from 
this  Bureau  (Circular  5,  Series  1865),  approved  by 
yourself,  that  a  gradual  transfer  of  jurisdiction  was 
implied ;  and  just  as  soon  as  practicable  we  have  made 
trial  of  the  civil  courts  in  every  State.  I  have  sought 
the  provost  courts,  as  well  as  the  civil,  to  relieve  me  of 
the  exercise  of  judicial  powers. 

“  Bureau  officers  have  never  attempted  to  regulate 
wages,  and  no  order  ever  existed  making  regulations 
on  the  subject.  Demand  and  supply  controlled  this 
matter.  Of  course  wages,  manner  of  payment,  and 
all  the  questions  entering  into  the  labor  subject  dif¬ 
fered  widely  throughout  the  South,  and,  from  the  na¬ 
ture  of  things,  could  not  be  uniform. 

“  Although  importuned  from  all  parts  of  the  South 
to  take  some  action  about  wages,  I  steadily  refused. 
The  following  has  been  the  standing  order  for  all  the 
States :  “  No  fixed  rate  of  wages  will  be  prescribed  for 

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The  Bureau  Work  in  1866 


a  district;  but  in  order  to  regulate  fair  wages  in  in¬ 
dividual  cases,  agents  should  have  in  mind  minimum 
rates  for  their  own  guidance.” 

“  Assistant  commissioners  are  required  to  furnish 
me  with  copies  of  all  orders  and  circulars  issued  by 
them,  and  a  close  examination  of  all  they  have  written 
on  the  subject  fails  to  produce  any  attempt  upon  their 
part  to  regulate  wages  or  contracts.  The  freedmen 
and  employer  have  been  left  to  manage  the  matter  for 
themselves. 

“  They  say  that  schools  in  Louisiana  have  been  sup¬ 
ported  by  the  Government.  Their  report  shows,  how¬ 
ever,  that  they  were  supported  by  a  military  tax,  and 
perhaps  to  some  extent  from  the  income  from  aban¬ 
doned  property. 

“  They  say  that  agents  interfere  in  an  arbitrary  man¬ 
ner  in  favor  of  freedmen  sometimes,  and  at  others  in 
favor  of  the  planters.  This  is  simply  a  crime,  accord¬ 
ing  to  Bureau  regulations,  and  the  inspectors  should 
have  preferred  charges  against  these  officers  that  they 
might  have  been  tried  and  punished.  ...  It  is  not 
justice  to  the  officers  of  the  Bureau  to  charge  them 
with  crimes  that  were  committed  against  the  freedmen 
in  time  prior  to  its  organization,  and  to  suppress 
dates  and  the  location  of  grave  charges  so  as  to  shift 
the  responsibility  upon  those  not  guilty.  This  was 
just  what  these  inspectors  did. 

“  The  inspectors  next  admit  the  necessity  of  the  Bu¬ 
reau  last  year,  and  acknowledge  that  it  did  much  good 
for  all  classes.  If  this  be  true,  it  is  bad  logic  to  con¬ 
demn  the  workings  of  the  Bureau  for  mistakes  and 
errors  that  were  committed  last  year,  and  more  par¬ 
ticularly  for  the  year  before  its  organization.  Nearly 
every  charge  made  against  officers  in  this  final  report 

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is  for  acts  of  last  year,  and  upon  which  these  officers 
have  already  been  called  to  account  by  the  Bureau  or 
the  War  Department. 

“  I  cannot  agree  with  the  inspectors  altogether  as  to 
a  complete  revolution  in  the  sentiment  of  the  Southern 
people  which  insures  sufficient  protection  to  the  freed- 
men,  when  United  States  officers  and  freedmen  are 
murdered,  and  the  freedmen  abused  and  mutilated, 
as  is  reported  by  the  inspectors  themselves. 

“  They  say  the  good  feelings  of  the  whites  toward 
the  blacks  are  owing  to  their  interest  in  securing  their 
labor.  This  I  regard  as  insufficient  security  when 
trusted  to  absolutely  without  some  other  principle, 
e.  g.,  the  guarantee  of  equal  laws.  For  years  slave¬ 
holders  have  deemed  compulsory  measures  the  best 
security  for  labor. 

“  The  inspectors  declare  that  the  Bureau  has  been 
in  the  aggregate  productive  of  more  harm  than  good, 
and  give  as  their  reasons,  substantially,  the  reliance 
upon  it  of  the  negroes,  and  their  consequent  distrust 
of  the  property  holders,  and  the  'provocation  of  espion¬ 
age  creating  mutual  suspicion  and  bitterness. 

“  I  deny  the  whole  statement.  It  is  not  founded 
upon  fact,  but  upon  theories  constantly  put  forth  by 
the  enemies  of  good  order.  A  few  bad  agents  have 
been  sent,  and  have  doubtless  done  much  harm,  yet 
this  Bureau  agency  has  been  mediatorial  and  pacific 
as  a  whole.  It  has  relieved  this  very  suspicion  and 
bitterness  that  existed  when  it  was  first  organized. 
Biots,  murders,  and  wicked  deeds  have  recently  sprung 
up,  but  these  are  in  no  way  initiated  or  caused  by  the 
officers  of  the  Government.  .  .  . 

“  The  principles  that  apply  to  wages  induced  the 
present  contract  system.  I  would  have  been  glad  to 

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The  Bureau  Work  in  1866 


have  adopted  precisely  the  same  methods  of  regula¬ 
ting  labor  as  have  obtained  in  the  Northern  States,  but 
neither  the  planters  nor  the  freedmen  were  yet  pre¬ 
pared  for  this. 

“  Planters  complained  that  freedmen  under  a  free 
system  of  labor  would  not  work  till  the  crop  was  har¬ 
vested,  but  would  remain  only  till  they  obtained  money 
to  keep  them  a  short  time,  and  then  would  desert  the 
crops  at  a  most  critical  period.  Nearly  every  South¬ 
ern  State  had  provided  laws  by  which  the  freedmen 
are  to  be  contracted  with  for  one  year.  Planters  re¬ 
fused  to  employ  freedmen  at  all  unless  they  would 
agree  to  remain  one  year.  Of  course,  freedmen  were 
driven  into  those  obligations  by  the  same  force  that 
compelled  them  to  work  for  low  wages.  Anyone  who 
will  recall  the  current  news  of  the  day,  as  reported 
during  the  months  of  last  January  and  February,  will 
remember  that  all  the  power  that  capital  could  exercise 
was  brought  to  bear  upon  the  laborers  of  the  South  to 
make  them  contract. 

“  We  then  labored  earnestly  and  successfully  to  ele¬ 
vate  wages  and  defended  the  interest  of  the  freedmen 
in  their  contracts,  being  constantly  resisted  by  the  in¬ 
ertia  of  the  peculiar  opinions  of  Southern  property 
holders.  The  evils  in  the  contracts  will  disappear  just 
as  soon  as  free  labor  shall  have  a  permanent  foothold 
under  its  necessary  protection  of  equal  and  just  laws 
properly  executed. 

“  From  the  course  pursued  by  the  inspectors,  I  have 
good  reason  to  suspect  the  object  of  the  inspection,  as 
they  understood  it,  was  to  bring  the  Freedmen’s  Bu¬ 
reau  into  contempt  before  the  country,  and,  to  do  this, 
they  have  endeavored  to  prove  maladministration. 

“  On  the  contrary,  I  am  prepared  to  prove  to  your- 

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self  or  any  other  candid  mind  that  I  have  fulfilled  with 
care,  conscientiousness,  and  faithfulness  the  trust  you 
committed  to  me;  I  have  obeyed  your  orders  and  in¬ 
structions,  making  no  other  objections  than  those  I 
have  made  directly  to  yourself  and  the  Secretary  of 
War;  my  system  has  been  a  thorough  one,  and  as 
complete  and  uniform  as  was  possible  in  an  institution 
intended  to  be  temporary  and  to  meet  a  transient  ne¬ 
cessity.  Could  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau  be  now  admin¬ 
istered  with  your  full  and  hearty  sanction,  and  with 
the  cooperation  of  other  branches  of  the  Government, 
it  would  fulfill  the  objects  of  its  creation  in  a  short 
time,  and  be  made,  while  it  existed,  to  conduce  for  all 
classes  of  the  people  to  industry,  enlightenment,  and 
justice.  The  work  committed  to  it  may  doubtless  be 
done  by  the  army,  without  a  bureau,  but  not  with  much 
less  expense.  Yet,  if  the  Government  would  keep  good 
faith  with  its  new-made  citizens,  some  sort  of  a  United 
States  agency  must  be  maintained  in  the  Southern 
States  until  society  shall  have  become  more  settled 
than  it  now  is.” 


308 


CHAPTER  LIV 


PUBLIC  ADDRESSES  CONCERNING  THE  FREEDMEN  IN  1866, 

'  ADVOCATING  EDUCATION 

TN  order  to  secure  adequate  means  for  aid  societies  to 
*  prosecute  their  good  work  it  was  necessary  to 
plead  the  cause  of  knowledge,  of  industry,  and  of  hu¬ 
manity  in  the  North  as  well  as  in  the  South.  We 
looked  to  the  North  and  West  for  contributions  of 
money,  and  even  more  for  moral  sympathy  and  sup¬ 
port.  To  this  end  when  I  could  get  away  from  my 
office  I  accepted  invitations  to  speak  publicly  concern¬ 
ing  the  freedmen.  Incident  to  a  trip  to  Maine  in  Feb¬ 
ruary,  1866,  I  delivered  some  dozen  addresses.  From 
the  following  extracts  it  is  now  clear  enough  to  see  the 
subjects  on  which  the  public  then  demanded  infor¬ 
mation. 

1  “  Our  emancipation  occurred  at  the  close  of  a  long 
and  exasperating  conflict  for  and  against  emancipa¬ 
tion,  so  that  we  have  given  the  new  birth  to  freedom 
under  the  worst  possible  conditions. 

“  Lee’s  army  surrenders,  then  Johnston’s,  then 
Kirby  Smith’s.  The  war  is  over  and  suddenly  the 
chains  of  slavery  are  broken  and  the  captives  go  free. 
Between  three  and  four  millions  of  slaves  are  emanci¬ 
pated  in  the  very  midst  of  a  people  who  heartily  dis¬ 
believe  in  freedom,  who  naturally  are  filled  with  pecu¬ 
liar  prejudices  and  resentments,  and  who  sometimes, 

1  Extracts  from  address  delivered  at  Springfield,  Mass.,  February  19, 
1866. 


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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

even  now,  glory  in  the  apparent  chaos  that  follows  the 
death  of  slavery. 

“  Hostile  to  liberty,  they  raised  large  armies ;  they 
fought  with  desperation ;  they  are  conquered,  but  they 
will  not  be  brought  in  a  day  to  love  the  thing  they 
hated.  No,  the  contrary  is  true;  the  Southern  man 
lets  go  of  slavery  inch  by  inch,  piece  by  piece;  he  says, 
‘  We  will  give  it  up  ’  but  he  really  does  not  do  so,  and 
I  do  not  think,  as  a  general  rule,  he  will  till  he  is  con¬ 
strained  to  it  by  the  power  and  the  needs  of  freedom 
itself. 

“  You  should  read  the  systems  proposed  from  so 
many  different  quarters.  Every  plan  has  in  it  the  very 
gist  of  slavery;  ‘  compulsory  labor  ’  is  stamped  upon  it. 
The  whole  thought  seems  to  be,  How  can  we  white  men 
maintain  our  authority  over  these  black  men?  How 
can  we  keep  them  from  renting  and  owning  land ;  how 
hinder  them  from  suits  and  testimony  against  us? 
How  can  we  restrain  them  from  rising  in  the  social 
scale;  how  prevent  their  individuality  from  cropping 
out;  their  holding  meetings;  their  bearing  arms;  how 
prevent  them  from  having  a  voice  in  making  or  exe¬ 
cuting  the  laws? 

“  I  do  not  say  that  there  is  unanimity  on  all  these 
points ;  but  that  the  great  body  of  the  Southern  white 
people  are  to-day  with  regard  to  some  one  or  more  of 
them,  avowedly  as  I  have  described.  I  do  not  say  it 
to  injure  them,  or  to  alienate  you  from  them,  but  be¬ 
cause  I  believe  it  is  a  truth  that  must  underlie  every 
measure  adopted  to  secure  to  us  and  to  the  freedmen 
the  fruits  of  our  recent  struggle. 

“  On  the  other  hand,  let  me  say  that  there  is  a  large 
class  of  our  fellow-citizens  in  the  North  brought  up 
under  influences  diametrically  opposite  to  those  under 

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which  the  Southern  mind  has  been  molded,  who  reason 
in  this  way :  ‘  Slavery  is  a  great  crime,  therefore  all 
slaveholders  are  conscious  criminals.'  No  kindness  is 
shown  them,  no  sympathy  felt  for  them.  They  are 
denominated  oppressors,  heathen,  or  condemned  by 
other  opprobious  epithets.  One  who  uses  the  dirk  and 
pistol  against  negroes  who  chance  to  cross  his  path  is 
represented  as  an  exponent  of  all  Southern  feeling  and 
principles.  Those  who  believe  and  reason  in  this  way 
are  themselves  either  partially  informed  or  are  in- 
crusted  with  prejudice  quite  as  real  as  that  exhibited 
by  Southern  extremists. 

“  Southern  men  are  generally  outspoken.  What  is 
the  truth?  It  is  that  a  large  body  of  them  are  sincere. 
Strange  as  it  may  seem,  they  heartily  disbelieve  in 
freedom  for  the  negro.  They  even  now  reason  upon 
emancipation  as  a  curse  of  God  cast  upon  them.  The 
warmest  -  hearted  Christian  regards  his  Northern 
brother  as  carried  away  by  a  delusion  which  is 
founded  altogether  on  ignorance  of  the  negro  char¬ 
acter. 

“  The  great  body  of  the  emancipated  no  doubt  will 
be  purified  and  strengthened  by  the  experiences  they 
are  passing  through,  just  as  the  children  of  Israel 
were  by  the  experiences  they  encountered  in  passing 
from  Egypt  to  the  promised  land.  Those  beyond  mid¬ 
dle  age  have  been  dependent  so  long  that  freedom 
gives  them  a  hard  trial.  Work  they  can,  and  the  most 
will,  but  what  they  lack  is  the  ability  to  provide  for 
themselves  in  such  way  (to  use  their  method  of  ex¬ 
pressing  it)  as  4  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  their  own  labor.' 

“  Again,  thousands  and  thousands  are  poor  women 
with  families  of  children,  without  husbands  to  care  for 
them.  In  Virginia,  where  large  numbers  of  children 

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were  reared  to  be  sold  and  work  further  South,  there 
is  naturally  a  large  surplus.  Without  visiting  them, 
you  could  hardly  realize  how  very  much  they  need  aid, 
not  simply  food  and  clothing,  but  instruction  of  every 
description,  kindness,  sympathy,  and  guidance. 

“  The  Southern  society  is  twofold ;  the  whites,  with 
their  peculiar  prejudices  and  beliefs,  and  the  blacks, 
with  their  present  disabilities  created  by  antecedent 
slavery.  The  Government  stands  forth  between  the 
two  classes  with  its  gigantic  resources  as  an  interme¬ 
diary  power.  The  spectacle  is  singular,  and  the  heart 
is  often  balanced  between  hope  and  fear  in  contem¬ 
plating  the  struggle  actually  going  on. 

“  My  first  decision  was  that  labor  must  be  settled, 
and  if  we  would  not  relapse  into  some  species  of  slav¬ 
ery  it  must  be  done  without  compulsory  means;  and 
if  we  would  avoid  anarchy  and  starvation  what  we  do 
must  be  done  immediately. 

“  It  was  very  tempting  to  put  the  hand  on  the  new 
freedman  and  compel  him ;  it  was  so  easy,  by  military 
power,  to  regulate  all  matters  for  him  in  that  way. 
How  the  letters  did  pour  in  upon  me  urging  that 
course !  4  Give  us  a  system 9 ;  ‘  Fix  the  wages  ’ ;  4  You 
don’t  understand  the  negro — he  won’t  work,’  and  simi¬ 
lar  expressions.  Gradually  these  letters  diminished 
and  the  cry  ‘Compel  him!  compel  him!9  is  more  dis¬ 
tant  and  less  distinctly  heard. 

“  If  we  can  hold  a  steady  hand  for  a  time — prevent 
extreme  and  widespread  suffering  by  timely  aid — 
afford  encouragement  to  every  laudable  enterprise — 
multiply  examples  of  success  in  every  species  of  free 
labor  and  do  so  in  every  county  in  every  State,  my 
decided  impression  is  that,  before  five  years,  there 
will  be  no  more  use  of  an  agency  of  the  general 

312 


Public  Addresses  Concerning  the  Freedmen  in  1866 

Government  in  the  Southern  States  than  there  is  now 
in  Ohio. 

“  Harmony  between  the  laborers  and  the  holders  of 
property,  which  is  essential  to  meet  immediate  wants 
and  settle  society  that  has  been  so  much  disturbed  at 
the  South,  may,  however,  be  brought  about  in  process 
of  time  without  much  real  progress.  There  is  a  funda¬ 
mental  prejudice,  a  false  theory  as  really  existing  as 
that  in  feudal  times  of  the  nobles  against  the  masses 
of  the  common  people ;  it  is  that  the  negroes  were  never 
intended  by  nature  for  education.  ‘  If  you  educate 
them/  they  say,  1  it  will  upset  them,  unfit  them  for 
the  duties  imposed  upon  them,  rob  us  of  our  position 
and  consideration  among  them.  Educate  them,  and 
you  will  not  only  render  them  discontented  laborers, 
but  they  will  get  into  all  sorts  of  political  jars  and  ex¬ 
citements,  they  will  become  a  prey  to  all  the  sophis¬ 
tries  and  isms  of  New  England,  and  bad  politicians 
will  guide  them  to  our  detriment.  In  brief,  all  the 
beautiful  natural  order  that  God  has  imposed,  making 
us  superior,  wise,  and  provident,  and  them  confiding, 
childlike,  and  dependent,  will  be  destroyed  as  much  as 
the  peace  of  Eden  was  by  allowing  Eve  to  eat  of  the 
tree  of  knowledge.  Fix  it  so  that  we  can  be  the  mind 
and  they  the  obedient  muscle,  and  all  will  be  well, 
whether  you  call  it  free  labor  or  not.’ 

“  If  the  simple  truth  could  at  once  break  into  the 
minds  of  all  classes  at  the  South,  that  the  elevation  of 
their  common  people  to  a  higher  plane  of  knowledge 
and  skill  would  be  a  positive  advantage  to  the  whole, 
so  that  in  each  State  there  would  be  established  such 
a  system  of  schools  as  would  bring  the  privileges  of 
learning  to  the  children  of  the  humblest,  then,  indeed, 
could  we  count  upon  substantial  growth. 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

“  Looking  at  the  great  numbers  of  indigent  freed¬ 
men,  old  men  and  women  and  helpless  children,  in 
every  Southern  State,  I  have  not  wondered  that  the  old 
slaveholder  should  pour  into  my  ear  the  glowing  ac¬ 
counts  of  the  blessedness  of  slavery  in  its  prosperous 
and  patriarchal  days,  and  that  he  should  heap  curses 
on  that  freedom  which  he  believes  to  be  the  occasion 
of  so  much  restlessness  and  suffering. 

“  But  you  and  I  know  that  the  real  cause  of  the 
desolation  and  suffering  is  ivar,  brought  on  and  con¬ 
tinued  in  the  interest  of  and  from  the  love  of  slavery. 
I  present  you  this  picture  to  urge  upon  you  kindness, 
sympathy,  and  liberality;  yes,  magnanimity  toward 
the  whole  South,  without  distinction  of  race  or  color. 

“  Not  a  day  passes  but  that  there  is  some  affecting 
reminder  of  the  fault  of  those  who  aimed  their  blows 
at  the  heart  of  the  Republic;  but  I  say  slavery,  that 
gigantic  evil  which  during  the  past  gave  us  no  rest — 
slavery  has  done  all  this — and,  thank  God,  slavery  has 
received  its  death  blow,  and  the  fact  has  been  pro¬ 
claimed,  not  only  in  America  but  throughout  the  world. 
In  view  of  this  we  must  seek  courage  and  strength 
from  on  high  so  as  to  lay  aside  all  malice,  all  pur¬ 
poses  of  revenge,  and  put  on  a  broad,  living  charity, 
no  less  than  love  to  God  and  love  to  his  children. 

“  Already,  my  friends,  I  have  been  severely  cen¬ 
sured  for  such  sentiments  as  I  am  putting  forth,  such 
entreaties  for  wholesale  charity,  and  I  am  pointed 
again  and  again  to  the  wrongs  of  the  freedmen.  I 
know  them. 

“  I  might  multiply  the  statements  of  wrongs  that 
they  daily  suffer.  I  hope  that  these  wrongs  will  all  be 
righted  and  full  justice  secured  to  the  freedmen  by  our 
Government.  Should  we  dwell  upon  the  follies,  the 

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blind  prejudices,  or  the  positive  faults,  even  crimes  of 
certain  people  in  the  Southern  States,  the  tendency 
would  only  be  to  widen  and  deepen  the  gulf  already 
existing;  but  if,  on  the  other  hand,  we  will  watch  for 
every  sign  of  favorable  change,  cherish  every  enlight¬ 
ened  sentiment  expressed,  extend  the  hand  of  kindness 
and  genuine  sympathy  to  those  who  are  in  need,  while 
we  adhere  to  true  principles  of  liberty  with  firmness, 
it  will  not  be  long  before  the  revolution  will  be  com¬ 
pleted  and  we  shall  realize  the  blessings  so  often  an¬ 
ticipated  by  the  words :  1  No  North,  no  South,  no  East, 
no  West !  ’ 

“  The  rights  of  the  freedman,  which  are  not  yet  se¬ 
cured  to  him,  are  the  direct  reverse  of  the  wrongs  com¬ 
mitted  against  him.  I  never  could  conceive  how  a  man 
could  become  a  better  laborer  by  being  made  to  carry 
an  overheavy  and  wearisome  burden  which  in  no  way 
facilitates  his  work.  I  never  could  detect  the  shadow 
of  a  reason  why  the  color  of  the  skin  should  impair 
the  right  to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness. 
Differences  of  form  and  feature,  variety  of  mind  and 
capacity,  perhaps  infinite  in  gradation,  indicate  to  us 
somewhat  of  the  divine  arrangement  and  prepare  us 
for  the  multiplicity  of  social  relations  that  do  exist,  so 
that  we  never  expect  or  seek  for  what  is  called  ‘  social 
equality.’  Yet  the  epitome  of  Christian  principles  as 
set  forth  by  the  Lord  when  He  said  4  Love  the  Lord 
thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  soul,  mind,  and  strength, 
and  thy  neighbor  as  thyself,’  demands  between  man 
and  man  the  plain  recognition  of  brotherhood. 

“  I  hope  I  may  be  permitted  to  live  to  a  good  old 
age,  that  I  may  have  an  earnest  of  what  I  so  heartily 
believe ;  that  I  may  tell  my  children’s  children  of  these 
times  when  the  American  people  put  forth  their 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

strength,  saved  a  Republic,  broke  the  chains  of  four 
millions  of  slaves,  and  inaugurated  genuine,  universal, 
unqualified  liberty.” 

On  February  21st,  at  a  meeting  in  the  interest  of 
my  work  held  at  the  Cooper  Institute,  New  York,  the 
venerable  Dr.  Ferris,  president  of  the  New  York  Uni¬ 
versity,  Horace  Greeley,  and  many  other  men  of  social 
and  political  prominence  were  present.  The  meeting 
was  opened  with  prayer  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Hiscock,  and 
then  I  was  introduced  to  the  large  audience.  After 
brief  comparisons  and  contrasts  drawn  between  Rus¬ 
sian  serfdom  and  American  slavery,  I  went  on  to  dis¬ 
cuss  the  attitude  of  the  Southern  white  people  toward 
negroes  now  free.  There  was,  I  claimed,  on  their  part 
a  positive  aversion  to  giving  freedom  and  rights  of 
citizenship  to  the  negro.  A  large  proportion  of  the 
former  slaveholders  looked  upon  the  reasonings  of 
Northern  men  as  vagaries  and  did  not  hesitate  to  ex¬ 
press  the  conviction  that  the  emancipation  was  a  judg¬ 
ment  of  God.  It  was  not  strange  that  the  greater  part 
were  overwhelmed  and  chagrined  by  the  loss  they  had 
met  in  the  abolition  of  slavery.  But  there  were  notable 
exceptions — men  who  took  a  comprehensive  view  of 
things,  and  believed  that  the  South  would  ultimately 
thrive  better  than  ever  before  through  the  genius  of 
free  labor.  Education  was  urged  as  the  true  relief.  Its 
thorough  practicability  was  shown  by  the  liveliest  ex¬ 
amples  of  daily  occurrence  among  the  colored  youth. 
Industrial  education  above  all  was  urged. 

I  had  hardly  ceased  speaking  when  Mr.  Greeley, 
wearing  his  usual  light  gray  coat,  was  loudly  de¬ 
manded.  He  responded,  and  among  other  things,  said : 
“  Should  the  Government  cease,  through  its  agents,  to 
make  efforts  for  the  education  and  upholding  of  the 

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Public  Addresses  Concerning  the  Freedmen  in  1866 

freedmen,  private  individuals  would  take  up  and  still 
carry  on  the  work,  and  finish  the  noble  task  which  has 
gone  so  far  in  disenthralling  the  black  race.”  Mr. 
Greeley  sat  down  amid  a  tempest  of  applause. 

I  had  hardly  resumed  my  desk  in  Washington  after 
this  trip  when  some  delegates  from  the  colored  peo¬ 
ple,  Frederick  Douglass,  Henry  H.  Garnett,  Sella  Mar¬ 
tin,  John  M.  Langston,  and  others  who  had  come  from 
various  sections  of  the  country  to  Washington  to  have 
a  conference  with  each  other  and  watch  the  interests 
of  their  race  in  legislation,  desired  an  interview  with 
me.  The  gentlemen  sought  the  highest  and  best  privi¬ 
leges  and  securities  for  their  people,  and  laid  stress 
upon  their  right  to  vote;  but,  judging  by  newspaper 
reports,  they  feared  that  I  was  opposed  to  them  and 
that  I  was  not  in  favor  of  securing  to  the  blacks  the 
right  of  suffrage.  They  came  to  my  office  and  told  me 
frankly  what  reports  they  had  seen.  I  expressed  to 
the  delegation  my  sincere  desire  to  have  the  coopera¬ 
tion  and  support,  in  my  efforts  to  benefit  the  freedmen, 
of  leaders  of  the  colored  people  like  themselves.  My 
conviction  was,  first,  that  all  citizens  should  be  equal 
before  the  law,  and  then,  as  in  military  generalship, 
one  position  should  be  carried  at  a  time  and  then  the 
next  tenable  position,  each  of  which  I  would  fortify 
and  defend  for  the  right,  and  advance  from  that. 
I  was  all  along  in  favor  of  eventual  suffrage  for  the 
negroes,  but  hoped  that  it  might  be  limited  at  least  by 
an  educational  qualification.  Opposition  to  education 
was,  I  feared,  forcing  us  to  adopt  at  once  universal 
suffrage. 

On  April  20th,  there  was  a  gathering  of  the  Metho¬ 
dist  church  people  in  Baltimore  at  the  new  Assembly 
Rooms.  The  object  of  the  meeting  was  stated  to  be  to 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.*  O.  O.  Howard 

discover  and  adopt  measures  for  the  intellectual  and 
religious  improvement  of  the  colored  race.  Chief  Jus¬ 
tice  Salmon  P.  Chase,  Judge  Hugh  L.  Bond,  of  Balti¬ 
more,  and  Senator  Evans,  of  Colorado,  and  myself,  as 
commissioner  of  freedmen,  were  present.  Judge  Bond, 
Senator  Evans,  and  I  were  to  make  the  addresses. 
The  chief  justice,  it  was  hoped,  would  add  at  the  end 
a  word  of  encouragement. 

Bev.  J.  A.  McCauley  gave  out  a  hymn  and  led  in 
prayer.  Judge  Bond  followed  in  his  effective  style, 
half  humorous  and  half  earnest.  The  judge  hoped 
that  it  would  he  the  result  of  that  meeting  that  sup¬ 
pression  of  certain  subjects  in  church  conferences 
would  cease;  that  it  would  not  be  unlawful  hereafter 
to  say  negro  as  well  as  African — that  is,  refer  to  this 
race  in  America  as  well  as  in  Africa — and  that  the 
Methodists  would  now  see  and  meet  their  duty  to  the 
colored  race.  Judge  Bond  was  one  of  those  Southern 
heroes  deeply  attached  to  the  Union  who  underwent 
persecution  and  ostracism  for  conscience’  sake. 

I  spoke  of  my  early  career  and  experiences  in  the 
army  when  stationed  in  Florida,  how  Christians  there 
believed  that  negroes  had  souls,  that  we  were  all  chil¬ 
dren  of  a  common  Heavenly  Father,  that  our  Lord 
made  sacrifices  for  all,  that  He  taught  the  doctrine  of 
universal  brotherhood,  and  that  we  could  not  escape 
the  injunction  to  “  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.”  Then 
I  made  a  plea  for  education  in  the  South  for  blacks  and 
needy  whites.  That  pleading  has  always  held  my  mind 
and  heart. 

After  that  I  urged  a  more  practical  extension  of 
marriage  rites.  I  stated  that  it  was  ridiculous  to  de¬ 
mand  for  church  offices  only  proper  marriages  among 
the  negroes.  As  to  the  constant  statement  that  negroes 

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Public  Addresses  Concerning  the  Freedmen  in  1866 

bad  proclivities  to  certain  sins — as  lying  and  stealing — 
and  that  it  was  of  little  use  to  expect  any  self-restraint 
except  from  fear  of  the  lash  or  other  punishment,  I  de¬ 
clared  all  that  to  be  a  prejudice,  a  slander.  If  among 
ns  whites  a  system  of  selfishness,  lying,  and  cheating  is 
to  prevail,  and  not  the  principles  of  the  Christian  reli¬ 
gion,  then  may  we  consistently  push  the  negroes  to  the 
wall.  As  Christians  our  first  duty  toward  them  is  to 
recognize  their  manhood,  that  which  all  through  the 
country  we  have  hitherto  neglected.  Then  I  endeavored 
to  demonstrate  how  the  Almighty  had  been  leading  us 
step  by  step  through  the  war  and  since,  and  to  show 
how  great  souls  were  already  seizing  upon  the  facts. 
Every  statesman,  every  individual — preacher,  lawyer, 
or  other  professional  man — who  attempts  to  stop  the 
wheels  of  progress  will  be  sooner  or  later  crushed  to 
atoms.  Shall  we  sacrifice  the  Republic  that  we  have 
saved?  The  church  must  stand  up  and  tell  the  truth. 
Whenever  you  Christians  have  the  opportunity  to  say 
what  you  think,  say  it !  Stand  firm  for  your  own  con¬ 
victions  of  truth  and  duty.  Mr.  Lincoln  gave  us  the 
principle — “  With  malice  toward  none,  with  charity  for 
all,  but  with  firmness  in  the  right  as  God  gave  us  to 
see  the  right.” 

George  Washington  was  our  beginning.  We  have 
been  brought  on  substantially  and  securely  by  his  glo¬ 
rious  successor,  Abraham  Lincoln.  As  his  country¬ 
men  let  us  not  hide  our  light,  but  speak  the  truth,  yet 
speak  it  kindly  in  the  fear  of  the  Lord. 

Resolutions  strong  and  good  were  unanimously 
adopted.  Then  Senator  Evans  gave  a  ringing  speech, 
asking :  “  Is  it  possible  that  anyone  should  ever  con¬ 
ceive  that  the  religion  of  Christ  could  be  modified  to 

suit  one  class  of  people  differently  from  another;  that 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

it  was  not  intended  for  the  whole  human  family?  ”  His 
answer  was  a  conclusive  demonstration  of  the  univer¬ 
sality  of  Christ’s  teaching  and  that  negroes  in  Africa, 
in  this  country,  or  elsewhere  were  included. 

Salmon  P.  Chase  stood  up  at  last  to  his  full  height 
of  six  feet  and  two  inches,  and  calmly  closed  the  meet¬ 
ing  in  a  few  words  that  sounded  like  a  benediction, 
promising  equal  justice  to  blacks  and  whites,  particu¬ 
larly  in  the  Supreme  Court. 

Friday,  April  27th,  the  negroes  celebrated  the 
fourth  anniversary  of  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
District  of  Columbia.  A  strange  procession  made 
up  of  military  battalions,  freemasons,  Odd  Fellows, 
schools,  civil  organizations — all  negroes — was  of  the 
best.  They  marched  past  the  White  House  and  called 
out  the  President.  They  passed  the  Army  and  Navy 
Departments,  General  Grant’s  and  my  headquarters, 
and  Charles  Sumner’s  house,  cheering  heartily  at  every 
point  of  interest  as  they  went.  The  long  column  of 
glad  souls  had  a  dozen  bands  of  music  preceding  their 
well-regulated  divisions.  There  was  no  point  from 
which  one  could  see  the  entire  length  of  the  parade. 
At  last  it  was  massed  at  Franklin  Square.  Beautiful 
banners  were  tastefully  grouped  around  the  ample 
speakers’  stand.  Bishop  Payne,  of  the  African  Metho¬ 
dist  Church  from  South  Carolina,  opened  this  public 
occasion  in  a  brief  and  appropriate  prayer.  He  was 
a  negro  very  dark,  slight  in  stature,  with  handsome, 
regular  features  and  was  wearing  large  spectacles ;  he 
spoke  the  choicest  of  English.  His  people  were  greatly 
delighted  with  his  ministrations  and  held  him  in  high 
esteem. 

Then  arose  the  tall  Henry  Highland  Garnett,  the 
colored  man  who  stood  in  point  of  oratory  and  influ- 

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ence  next  to  Frederick  Douglass  in  the  old  days  of 
abolition  warfare.  He  gave  this  day  a  rousing  speech : 
“  I  suppose  it  will  no  longer  be  presumption  to  call 
you  fellow-citizens ,  since  the  Constitution  has  been  so 
amended  as  forever  to  prohibit  slavery  and  involun¬ 
tary  servitude,  except  in  punishment  for  crime,  and 
since  the  1  Civil  Rights  bill  ’  has  become  a  law  of  the 
land.  To-day  the  principles  of  liberty  are  triumphant ; 
the  principles  for  which  patriots  and  philanthropists 
have  labored  from  the  foundation  of  our  Government, 
and  for  which  the  immortal  Lincoln  became  a  martyr, 
and  which  John  Quincy  Adams  and  Giddings  and  the 
Lovejoys  and  Henry  Winter  Davis  and  Solomon  Foot 
proclaimed  with  their  dying  breath.”  He  eulogized 
dead  heroes  and  praised  the  living,  taking  up  name 
after  name.  He  praised  the  Lord  for  their  work. 

“  Thank  God,”  he  went  on,  “  that  my  noble,  suffer¬ 
ing  and  rising  race  live  and  flourish  like  the  goodly 
cedars.  The  history  of  250  years  has  demonstrated 
the  fact  that  the  black  race  in  America,  or  wherever 
dispersed,  can  neither  be  forever  enslaved  or  blotted 
out.  God  is  with  us  and  we  must  be  free. 

“  One  year  ago  Abraham  Lincoln  was  lying  in  his 
coffin.  You  and  I,  fellow-citizens,  were  among  the 
mourners.  Although  his  remains  sleep  in  a  tomb  in 
the  far  West,  yet  he  is  buried  in  the  hearts  of  this  sor¬ 
rowing  people.  Rest,  rest  in  peace,  glorious  martyr, 
statesman,  ruler,  benefactor,  and  friend !  ” 

Garnett  concluded  by  reading  some  well-worded 
and  touching  resolutions.  The  last  one  was : 

“ RESOLVED:  That  we  are  sensible  of  the  fact 
that  we  are  engaged  in  a  stubborn  war  with  numerous 
and  unrelenting  foes,  which,  by  the  help  of  God,  we 
mean  to  fight  out  to  the  end  on  our  native  soil,  aiming 

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to  complete  the  establishment  of  our  rights  and  liber¬ 
ties;  and  that  our  weapons  are  the  spelling  book,  the 
Bible,  the  press,  and  the  implements  of  industry; 
and  our  impregnable  fortifications  are  schoolhouses 
and  the  Church  of  Christ;  and  our  watchwords  are 
Unconditional  Loyalty  to  God  and  Our  Country.” 

As  soon  as  the  great  cheering  died  away  Senator 
Lyman  Trumbull  spoke :  “  I  am  here  to-day  to  rejoice 
with  you  in  this  anniversary  of  your  freedom — free¬ 
dom  from  the  most  abject  bondage  ever  visited  upon 
any  portion  of  the  human  race — freedom  that  makes 
you  masters  of  yourselves,  protects  you  in  the  enjoy¬ 
ment  of  the  family  relation,  secures  to  you  your  chil¬ 
dren,  prevents  the  father  from  being  torn  from  his 
child,  and  the  mother  from  being  torn  from  her  infant. 
(Amen  and  applause.)  Secured  not  without  a  strug¬ 
gle,  not  without  time,  and  not,  I  may  say,  by  human 
instrumentality  alone.  Whatever  credit  any  of  us  or 
any  man  may  claim  for  the  freedom  enjoyed  to-day  by 
four  millions  of  American  citizens,  that  credit  belongs 
to  Omnipotence,  who  has  so  molded  events  that  some 
of  us  have  been  instruments  merely  in  bringing  about 
this  greatest  and  grandest  result  in  the  history  of  the 
human  race.” 

Mr.  Trumbull  closed  with  these  words :  “  Hence¬ 
forth,  no  matter  who  makes  the  law,  it  must  be  equal, 
and  if  it  is  a  law  that  deprives  you  of  a  right,  it  must 
deprive  us  white  men  of  the  same  right.  Equality 
before  the  law  belongs  to  you  from  this  time  hence¬ 
forth,  and,  by  the  blessing  of  God,  I  trust  forever.” 

Henry  Wilson  followed  Mr.  Trumbull  with  a 
strong  voice  and  effective  utterance :  “  As  I  have  gazed 
to-day  upon  this  mighty  throng  in  the  capital  of  my 
country,  as  I  have  looked  upon  these  banners,  listened 

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to  the  music,  heard  the  voices  to  which  you  have  lis¬ 
tened,  I  have  turned  back  one  third  of  a  century  to 
that  little  assemblage  of  God-fearing  and  liberty-lov¬ 
ing  men  that  laid  the  foundation  in  America  for  the 
triumph  which  we  enjoy  to-day.  I  remember  that 
national  convention  of  humble  men  from  ten  States  to 
whom  we  owe  everything  sanctioned  by  law,  humanity, 
and  religion,  for  the  abolition  of  slavery,  and  for  the 
elevation  of  every  person  of  color.  The  work  began 
one-third  century  ago.  (That’s  so.)  Humble,  devoted 
men  have  since  gone  on  from  struggle  to  struggle, 
until,  to-day,  there  is  not  a  slave  that  treads  the  soil 
of  the  country  from  the  Delaware  to  the  Rio  Grande. 
Not  a  cradle  of  yours  can  be  robbed  in  America  to-day ; 
not  a  wife  of  yours  can  be  torn  from  your  bosom;  not 
a  bloodhound  can  bay  on  your  track.  Thanks  be  to 
God  for  the  labors  of  these  faithful  men.  Every  fetter 
of  yours  is  broken,  and  every  man  born  in  America  can 
stand  up  and  say :  £  I  am  a  man,  a  brother,  a  citizen  of 
the  American  Republic !  ’  ” 

About  this  time  the  platform  gave  way  and  sank 
enough  to  frighten  the  people  on  and  near  it;  but  for¬ 
tunately  nobody  was  seriously  hurt.  As  soon  as  it  was 
again  properly  propped  up  Senator  Wilson  resumed: 
“  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  I  have  come  back  again.  We 
sometimes  during  the  last  thirty  years  have  had  falls, 
but  we  always  rose  again.  The  friends  of  human  free¬ 
dom,  sometimes  baffled  for  a  time,  sometimes  checked, 
sometimes  even  temporarily  defeated,  always  rose 
stronger  and  marched  forward  with  a  bolder  front.” 

My  own  speech  came  after  Mr.  Wilson  finished.  It 
showed  pretty  clearly  my  feeling  at  that  time  toward 
the  emancipated. 

“  Fellow-citizens  and  fellow-soldiers :  It  gives  me 

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more  than  ordinary  pleasure  to  be  able  to  be  present 
on  an  occasion  like  this ;  to  be  able  to  look  forth  upon 
these  masses  of  men;  to  be  able  to  see  in  their  faces 
the  gleamings  of  intelligence ;  to  see  senators  from  Con¬ 
gress  standing  up  before  you;  to  listen  to  the  declara¬ 
tions  of  truths  so  solemn,  so  momentous,  so  deep,  and 
stirring  the  very  foundations  of  the  heart.  I  notice  on 
one  of  your  banners  the  inscription  ‘  Friendship,  Love, 
Truth.’  I  take  as  my  motto  the  central — 4  Love.’ 

“  The  closing  sentiment  of  your  resolution  to-day 
was  loyalty  to  God,  and  loyalty  to  your  country.  I 
thank  the  soldiers  yonder  and  all  they  represent,  for 
the  manifestation  of  true  loyalty  during  our  past 
struggle  for  liberty;  and  I  unite  with  you  and  with 
them  in  ascribing  gratitude  to  Almighty  God  that  He 
has  put  it  into  our  hearts  to  be  loyal  to  Him  who  sits 
on  the  throne  of  the  heavens,  because  it  is  He  who  has 
brought  our  public  mind  into  the  channels  of  truth; 
and  whether  I  as  a  soldier  proclaim  it  or  the  minister 
or  the  bishop  proclaims  it,  we  hear  the  solemn  truth 
that  1  God  is  love.’  The  fundamental  truth  of  the 
whole  Gospel  is  love.  We  are  required  by  that  fun¬ 
damental  law  to  love  God,  to  love  humanity,  to  love 
one  another,  to  love  the  child  of  God.  It  is  not  like ,  it 
is  love.  With  all  the  depth  of  the  human  heart  to  love, 
and  to  take  that  and  carry  it  into  yonder  cottage. 
There  you  will  find  it  will  make  the  different  parts  of 
the  same  family  agree;  it  will  make  the  children  kind 
to  their  parents  and  kind  to  each  other.  It  will  create 
a  scene  beautiful  in  itself;  a  picture  lovely  to  look 
upon.  Carry  it  into  your  neighborhood,  and  it  will 
produce  agreement  between  one  family  and  another. 
Carry  it  into  yonder  capital  and  it  will  produce  right 
feeling  and  doing.  It  makes  senator  grasp  senator  by 

324 


Public  Addresses  Concerning  the  Freedmen  in  1866 

the  hand  and  say,  ‘  God  bless  yon !  ’  It  makes  the  dy¬ 
ing  senator  grasp  his  brother  senator  and  point  him 
to  God  and  heaven.  It  takes  hold  not  only  of  time,  but 
of  eternity.  It  is  the  real  true  bond  of  this  country.  I 
tell  yon  it  is  the  fundamental  law ;  it  is  the  very  bottom 
of  a  true  reconstruction.  I  asserted  it  in  another  form 
once  and  was  abused  for  it.  I  said  that  there  was  re¬ 
quired  in  this  country  a  little  more  of  the  spirit  of 
Christ.  I  proclaim  it  again  before  this  vast  audience, 
that  it  requires  the  genuine,  practical  spirit  of  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  to  make  our  people  agree,  to  re¬ 
construct  our  Government,  to  make  us  what  we  ought 
to  be — a  united,  homogeneous  people,  with  homogene¬ 
ous  institutions.  Carry  it  to  the  Presidential  mansion 
and  there  it  inspires  the  head  and  front  of  our  Repub¬ 
lic.  It  was  what  there  animated  the  bosom  of  Abra¬ 
ham  Lincoln.  It  warmed  the  heart  of  the  poor  ne- 
gress  who  knelt  in  one  of  our  streets  in  Washington 
after  his  death  and  weeping  said  that  in  Abraham  Lin¬ 
coln  she  had  lost  more  than  her  God,  because  God  had 
made  her  a  slave  and  he  had  made  her  a  free  woman. 
She,  it  is  true,  did  not  understand  that  God  was  lead¬ 
ing  him,  was  inspiring  him,  was  guiding  his  heart  and 
his  mind  into  the  channels  of  truth,  leading  him  to 
walk  in  the  light  as  God  gave  him  to  see  the  light. 
Thus  the  great  governing  principle  of  his  heart  was 
love  to  his  Maker,  and,  through  that,  love  to  mankind. 

“  Now,  my  friends,  bring  the  same  principle  to  bear 
upon  the  condition  of  things  in  our  Southern  States. 
What  do  we  need?  We  need  true  men;  we  need  that 
principle  which  shall  lead  the  rough  man,  the  untrue 
man,  to  bow  before  the  same  Maker  and  to  show  a 
broken  and  a  contrite  heart.  He,  then,  will  not  perse¬ 
cute  a  man  because  he  is  red,  because  he  is  green,  be- 

325 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

cause  he  is  yellow — oh  no !  not  even  if  he  should  hap¬ 
pen  to  be  black.  He  hears  the  command :  1  Thou  skalt 
love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself.’  I  do  not  learn  in  any  of 
the  Commandments  or  in  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  that 
black  men  are  excepted ;  and  I  have  always  taken  it  for 
granted  from  my  childhood  till  the  present  time  that 
the  Commandments  and  Gospel  apply  alike  to  black 
and  white.  .  .  .  One  of  our  generals  in  this  city  told 
me  the  other  day  that  many  years  ago  in  Florida  he 
had  been  outside  of  many  of  the  cabins  of  the  negroes 
and  heard  them  night  after  night  sending  up  petitions 
to  God  for  their  freedom.  He  said  he  believed  then 
that  those  prayers  were  registered  in  heaven,  and  that 
sooner  or  later  these  people  would  be  free.  Now,  cer¬ 
tainly,  taking  into  consideration  what  I  have  seen  and 
what  I  have  heard,  I  believe  there  will  be  a  great  body 
of  negroes  in  heaven;  and  in  spite  of  it,  I  want  to  go 
there,  and  if  we  can  carry  out  the  principle  of  love  to 
one  another,  we  may  all  go  there.  If  we  cannot  carry 
it  out,  those  men  whose  bosoms  are  not  big  enough,  or 
broad  enough,  to  take  in  that  principle  will  never  be 
likely  to  go  there ! 

“We  can  rest  on  fundamental  truths;  they  apply 
alike  to  statesmen  and  President;  they  apply  to  me; 
they  apply  to  you.  You  have  a  great  work  to  do — an 
immense  work.  I  am  not  one  of  those  who  cry,  i  The 
negro  will  not  work.’  I  know  you  will,  but  I  want  you 
to  work  with  unusual  zeal.  I  want  the  brightest  and 
smartest  among  you  to  put  forth  every  energy.  (We 
will.)  We  have  fought  and  fought  together;  and 
whenever  I  feel  a  returning  throb  from  an  old  wound, 
I  thank  God  I  lost  what  I  did  lose  in  the  procurement 
of  practical  liberty.  I  thank  God  it  was  done  in  open¬ 
ing  up  a  chance  for  the  colored  people  to  go  ahead  in 

326 


Public  Addresses  Concerning'  the  Freedmen  in  I860 

the  inauguration  of  the  principle  that  every  man  have 
a  chance  to  develop,  to  grow,  to  increase,  to  multiply, 
not  merely  bodily,  but  mentally  and  morally.  I  now 
begin — we  begin  to-day — to  realize  and  celebrate  the 
truths  that  have  been  so  long  in  the  Bible,  truths  that 
were  in  our  Declaration  of  Independence,  but  which 
were  falsely  or  partially  proclaimed  from  many  fo¬ 
rums.  We  do  realize  that  Declaration  to-day;  and  on 
the  next  Fourth  of  July  if  I  should  participate  in  the 
celebration  of  the  Independence  of  the  United  States 
I  will  do  it  as  to-day  with  a  free,  undivided  heart  and 
mind.  I  can  say :  Liberty  now,  union  now,  liberty  and 
union,  one  and  inseparable.” 

Prof.  H.  Howard  Day  made  the  closing  address. 
A  single  sentiment  exhibits  its  tenor.  “  This  emanci¬ 
pation  I  look  upon  as  a  part  of  God’s  work,  and  very 
properly  first  of  all  to  Him  you  give  the  glory.  A  man 
who  forgets  the  agency  of  God  in  such  a  work  makes 
a  vital  stab  at  the  very  cause  which  he  seeks  to  benefit. 
This  emancipation  was  the  legitimate  triumph  and  a 
first  result  of  the  true  idea  of  the  American  Govern¬ 
ment.” 

At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  American  Missionary 
Association  at  Cooper  Union,  New  York  City,  May 
8,  1866,  which  I  attended,  a  brief  letter  from  the  assist¬ 
ant  commissioner  for  Tennessee,  General  Clinton  B. 
Fisk,  read  by  the  secretary,  showed  that  the  General 
was  detained  from  participating  in  the  meeting  by  the 
Memphis  riot.  He  wrote  from  Nashville,  May  4th: 
“  The  sad  state  of  affairs  at  Memphis  requires  my  per¬ 
sonal  presence  there.  The  tale  of  blood,  murder,  and 
arson  in  the  chief  city  of  this  State  will  sadden  the 
hearts  of  all  who  are  earnestly  striving  to  establish 
peace  on  an  enduring  basis.  The  ashes  of  our  school- 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

bouses  in  Memphis  but  indicate  the  imperative  neces¬ 
sity  of  education  and  Christianity  (more  pronounced) 
for  the  Southern  States.” 

This  riot  beginning  Tuesday,  May  1st,  and  continu¬ 
ing  over  two  days,  was  brought  on  by  the  armed  city 
police  attempting  to  check  the  disorder  of  some  dis¬ 
charged  colored  soldiers  who  had  been  drinking.  This 
beginning  resulted  in  killing  that  day  from  fifteen  to 
twenty  negroes,  in  burning  eight  negro  schoolhouses 
and  the  churches  where  schools  were  taught,  and  also 
thirty-five  of  their  private  houses.  The  resulting  ex¬ 
citement  was  so  great  that  General  Stoneman,  the  mili¬ 
tary  district  commander,  put  the  city  under  strict  mar¬ 
tial  law.  The  Memphis  riot  naturally  excited  the  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  American  Missionary  Association,  for  it 
had  teachers  and  agents  in  every  part  of  the  South, 
and  it  greatly  influenced  the  anniversary  exercises. 
This  riot,  coupled  with  the  others  a  short  time  before 
at  New  Orleans,  where  many  black  men  perished  and 
much  property  was  destroyed,  everyone  feared  would 
be  extended  to  other  cities. 

Mr.  Lewis  Tappan,  the  senior  vice-president  of  the 
association,  and  one  of  New  York’s  most  honored  mer¬ 
chants  and  philanthropists,  presided.  After  the  pre¬ 
liminary  exercises,  including  a  grand  missionary 
hymn,  Mr.  Tappan  introduced  me  in  very  flattering 
terms.  I  closed  a  description  of  our  work  with  an 
appeal  for  moral  support,  saying :  “  After  we  shall 
have  exerted  ourselves  to  the  utmost  there  will  be 
tasks  which  no  Government  agency  will  be  able  to  ac¬ 
complish.  There  will  be  poverty  it  cannot  reach. 
There  is  already  a  strong  feeling  abroad  against  tax¬ 
ing  the  people  to  support  the  Southern  poor ;  and  there 
are  also  objections,  alleged  by  good  men,  against 

328 


Public  Addresses  Concerning  the  Freedmen  in  1866 

efforts  in  behalf  of  education  carried  on  by  the  general 
Government.  My  Bureau,  though  engaged  specifically 
in  a  work  of  relief ;  though  it  is  the  means  of  feeding 
the  hungry,  caring  for  the  orphans  and  widows,  pro¬ 
tecting  and  promoting  education,  and  working  to  se¬ 
cure  justice  to  the  weak  and  oppressed,  nevertheless, 
partakes  of  the  hatred  everywhere  meted  out  to  all  who 
are  caring  for  the  negro.  Its  friends  are  sometimes 
doubtful  about  its  expediency;  many  think  the  univer¬ 
sal  franchise  will  dispense  with  it;  so  that  it  is  not 
safe  to  count  upon  it  or  its  measures  as  of  long  con¬ 
tinuance.  Work  then,  my  friends,  while  the  sun  shines. 
Do  what  the  Government  cannot  do,  send  Christian 
men  and  women  who  are  not  afraid  of  outrage,  even 
such  as  that  noble  girl1  suffered  at  Warrenton,  Va. ; 
who  are  not  afraid  to  die;  send  such  as  teachers  and 
almoners  of  your  contributions  and  as  Christian  mis¬ 
sionaries. 

“  The  only  way  to  lift  the  ponderous  load  of  pov¬ 
erty  from  the  houses  of  the  poor  whites  and  blacks, 
and  keep  it  lifted,  is  by  instruction.  I  do  not  mean  sim¬ 
ply  what  is  learned  from  books,  but  what  is  gained 
from  example.  But  I  must  detain  you  no  longer. 
The  suffering  of  the  poor  is  a  heavy  load  upon  us; 
the  villainies  of  those  who  can  rob  and  murder  the 
poor,  burn  the  churches  and  schoolhouses,  try  us  se¬ 
verely.  The  twistings  and  turnings  of  our  great  men, 
who  are  wedded  to  politics  as  a  trade,  who  are  too 
great  to  own  the  manhood  of  the  slave,  too  great  to 
consider  important  the  interests  of  the  lowly,  perplex 
us;  but  the  past  cannot  be  blotted  out;  our  country 

1  A  band  of  white  men  opposed  to  all  attempts  to  benefit  the  blacks 
had  brutally  assaulted  a  teacher,  from  the  North,  at  Warrenton, Va.  Amer¬ 
ican  Missionary  Magazine,  June,  1866. 

329 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

is  being  purged,  is  being  redeemed,  and  shall  be 
blessed.” 

Henry  Ward  Beecher  followed  me  and  urged  help, 
real  help  to  the  freedmen’s  societies.  He  spoke  with 
great  force  and  earnestness. 

Two  days  later  I  entreated  the  American  Bible 
Society  at  their  anniversary  exercises,  held  also  in 
New  York,  to  extend  their  Bible  distribution  to  the 
freedmen  in  the  South,  and  hastened  back  to  my  work 
in  Washington,  which  I  only  left  once  again  that  year 
to  address  the  people  of  Brooklyn  and  Newark,  N.  J., 
on  “  Our  Christian  Duty  to  the  South,”  and  to  attend 
the  meeting  of  the  American  Freedmen’s  Mission  at 
the  Cooper  Institute  in  New  York.  The  burden  of  my 
efforts  in  these  assemblies  may  be  condensed  into  the 
words:  Educate  the  children.  That  was  the  relief 
needed.  Is  it  not  always  the  relief  which  in  time  be¬ 
comes  a  permanency? 


330 


CHAPTER  LV 


FIRST  APPROPRIATION  BY  CONGRESS  FOR  THE  BUREAU  ;  THE 
RECONSTRUCTION  ACT,  MARCH  2,  1867;  INCREASE 
OF  EDUCATIONAL  WORK 

1 1  ^HE  year  1867  for  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau  was  an 
eventful  one.  The  army  appropriation  by  Con¬ 
gress  for  the  year  ending  June  30,  1867,  was  made 
July  13,  1866,  and  contained  the  first  formal  appro¬ 
priations  for  the  support  of  our  work.  The  items  of 
most  interest  were:  for  salaries,  stationery,  printing, 
quarters,  and  fuel,  $308,200;  for  clothing  and  rations 
for  distribution,  $4,273,250;  for  medical  department, 
$500,000;  for  transportation,  $1,320,000;  for  school 
superintendents,  $21,000;  for  repairs  and  rent  of 
schoolhouses  and  asylums,  $500,000;  for  telegraphing, 
$18,000.  Total,  $6,940,450.  Hostile  spirits  thought 
almost  $7,000,000  enormous. 

By  a  law,  of  date  March  2,  1867,  the  plan  of  Con¬ 
gress  for  a  reconstruction  of  the  South  had  been 
passed  over  the  President’s  veto.  Its  preamble  read: 
“  Whereas,  no  legal  state  governments  or  adequate 
protection  for  life  or  property  now  exist  in  the  States 
of  Virginia,  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia, 
Mississippi,  Alabama,  Louisiana,  Florida,  Texas,  and 
Arkansas ;  and  whereas,  it  is  necessary  that  peace  and 
good  order  should  be  enforced  in  such  States  until 
loyal  and  republican  State  governments  can  be  legally 
established,”  etc.,  etc.  The  law  provided  for  five  mili- 

331 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

tary  districts  through  which  the  country  would  be 
governed  until  the  people  of  any  State  should  adopt  a 
constitution  framed  by  a  convention  elected  by  male 
citizens  without  distinction  of  race,  color,  or  previous 
condition  of  servitude,  but  still  disfranchising  partici¬ 
pants  in  the  rebellion.  The  new  constitutions  must 
grant  suffrage  to  negroes  and  be  submitted  to  Con¬ 
gress  for  approval.  Civil  governments  where  they  ex¬ 
isted  were  allowed  to  continue  till  the  new  were  estab¬ 
lished. 

The  districts  were  then  organized  with  General 
Schofield  in  command  of  Virginia ;  General  Sickles  for 
North  and  South  Carolina ;  General  George  H.  Thomas 
for  Georgia,  Florida,  and  Alabama;  General  Ord  for 
Mississippi  and  Arkansas,  and  General  Sheridan  for 
Louisiana  and  Texas.  All  these  officers,  as  will  ap¬ 
pear,  who  were  commanders  of  individual  States,  be¬ 
came  ex-officio  my  assistant  commissioners.  Coinci¬ 
dent  with  the  Bureau  work,  the  work  of  reconstruc¬ 
tion  along  the  lines  of  the  new  law  now  began  and 
went  on.  In  each  State  the  assistant  commissioner 
was  at  the  head  of  the  Bureau  work  with  at  least  an 
adjutant,  a  disbursing  officer,  a  medical  officer,  and  a 
superintendent  of  schools  as  his  staff  in  Bureau 
matters. 

Each  State  was  divided  into  military  districts  whose 
commanders  were  the  Bureau  agents  in  matters  per¬ 
taining  to  the  freedmen,  and  under  them  were  the  sub¬ 
districts  where  the  subagent,  usually  without  troops 
present,  procured  the  necessary  supplies  for  the  ex¬ 
tremely  destitute,  adjusted  labor  matters,  encouraged 
negro  education  and  counteracted  the  effect  of  unjust, 
prejudiced  juries,  and  the  action  of  some  local  courts, 
which  arrested  and  in  many  instances  practically  re- 

332 


First  Appropriation  by  Congress  for  the  Bureau 

enslaved  the  negro.  I  simply  conformed  to  the  new 
law,  as  I  had  to  President  Johnson’s  previous  plans. 

It  was  all  the  while  my  steady  and  avowed  pur¬ 
pose,  as  soon  as  practicable,  to  close  out  one  after 
another  the  original  Bureau  divisions,  namely,  that  of 
lands,  commissary  and  quartermaster  supplies,  justice 
through  Bureau  or  military  courts,  and  the  medical  es¬ 
tablishments,  including  provisions  for  the  orphans  and 
the  destitute,  while  with  all  the  energy  I  could  muster 
I  increased  the  school  work.  I  hoped  at  the  end  of  the 
Bureau  term  to  transfer  the  educational  division  in  a 
high  state  of  efficiency  to  some  more  permanent  de¬ 
partment  of  the  general  Government  for  continuance 
and  enlargement,  certainly  until  the  States  should 
severally  adopt  a  good,  wholesome  school  system 
whereby  all  the  children  of  every  color  and  description 
should  have  the  same  facilities  as  those  of  Massachu¬ 
setts  or  Ohio. 

As  a  condensed  account  of  this  year’s  work  let  us 
take  a  survey  of  each  assistant  commissioner’s  field, 
instancing  only  enough  of  detail  to  show  how  the  va¬ 
riety  of  conditions  led  the  efforts  of  each  State  into 
directions  peculiar  to  its  own  necessities. 

I  was  glad  enough  that  new  laws  and  orders  made 
General  Swayne  a  district  commander  as  well  as  my 
assistant  commissioner  for  Alabama.  From  and  after 
November  1,  1866,  the  status  of  freedmen,  under  the 
laws  of  that  State,  was  the  same  as  that  of  other  non¬ 
voting  inhabitants.  The  Reconstruction  Act  of  Con¬ 
gress  gave  the  men  the  ballot.  The  school  work 
though  small  was  really  hopeful.  There  were  68  white 
teachers  and  15  colored.  Preparations  had  been  made 
to  erect  large  buildings  for  educational  use  at  Mobile, 
Montgomery,  and  Selma.  At  remote  places  and  on 

333 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

plantations  rude  temporary  structures  were  put  up, 
and  these  Swayne  aided  with  school  furniture.  Appli¬ 
cations  for  assistance  beyond  the  ability  of  General 
Swayne  or  myself  to  supply,  were  on  the  increase. 
The  willingness  of  negro  parents  out  of  their  poverty 
to  sustain,  as  far  as  they  could,  schools  for  their  chil¬ 
dren  was  everywhere  manifest;  they  soon  warranted 
Swayne’s  strenuous  efforts  to  make  them  wholly  self- 
supporting. 

Opposition  on  the  part  of  the  better  and  influential 
.class  of  white  people  had  diminished  when  Swayne 
made  his  annual  report,  and  a  manly  purpose  on  the 
part  of  the  freedmen  toward  self-help  and  independ¬ 
ence  was  evident.  Somebody,  however,  must  organ¬ 
ize  in  new  fields  and  instruct  the  freedmen  in  their 
duty  and  interest.  The  General  cited  several  instances 
of  good  disposition  and  success.  At  Mount  Moriah,  six 
miles  from  Mobile,  lived  a  colored  man,  Edward 
Moore,  who  had  built  a  log  schoolhouse  at  his  own  ex¬ 
pense,  putting  it  on  his  own  land.  In  this  he  was 
teaching  52  pupils.  This  school  the  freedmen  sup¬ 
ported.  Again,  at  Selma,  B.  S.  Turner,  himself  a  pros¬ 
perous  and  representative  freedman,  was  helping  his 
friends  and  neighbors  by  eloquent  words  and  by  money 
out  of  his  own  earnings  to  secure  school  advantages  to 
the  children.  His  brief  speech  to  an  inspector  was  re¬ 
corded  :  “  Let  us  educate,  let  us  make  sacrifices  to  edu¬ 
cate  ourselves,  in  this  matter,  let  us  help  those  of  us 
who  are  unable  to  help  themselves.”  At  Montgomery, 
one  of  the  seven  schools  there  existing  was  taught  by 
a  white  man  of  Southern  birth.  All  this  was  encour¬ 
aging,  but  the  cold  fact  remained  that  a  large  number 
of  the  62  counties,  densely  populated  with  the  freed 
people,  had  as  yet  no  schools  whatever,  and  further, 

334 


First  Appropriation  by  Congress  for  the  Bureau 

that  when  there  were  schools,  only  a  small  proportion 
of  the  children  had  the  privilege  of  attending  them. 
Such  teachers  as  Swayne  then  had  were  earnest,  labo¬ 
rious,  and  efficient.  They  preserved  good  discipline 
and  made  their  instruction,  as  far  as  they  could  go, 
thorough  and  accurate. 

To  the  State  of  Arkansas  there  had  come  a  new  com¬ 
mander  and  assistant  commissioner,  General  C.  H. 
Smith,  General  Sprague  having  left  the  service  to  be¬ 
come  the  Western  general  superintendent  of  the 
^Northern  Pacific  Kailway.  Arkansas  was  a  difficult 
State  to  reconstruct,  and  progress,  especially  in  the 
line  of  justice,  was  slow  enough.  There  were  numbers 
of  desperadoes  in  remote  places,  especially  in  the 
southern  districts.  They  evaded  punishment  by  run¬ 
ning  across  the  State  line,  so  that  emancipation  acts 
and  the  civil  rights  law  had  there  little  effect. 

The  catalogue  of  wrongs  upon  freedmen  indicated 
feeble  progress,  even  among  the  better  class  of  former 
slaveholders ;  yet  in  the  aggregate  in  Arkansas  the  col¬ 
ored  people  had  made  great  gains.  They  were  allowed 
to  testify  in  the  courts,  even  against  white  men,  and 
white  men  had  been  punished  for  offenses  against 
negroes  in  State  and  city  tribunals. 

To  the  educational  work  planters,  now  evidently  for 
self-interest,  were  more  favorable  than  before;  some 
proprietors  had  shown  marked  kindness;  others  had 
found  facilities  for  the  planting  of  new  schools  on  their 
own  estates.  The  ardor  of  the  freedmen  for  education 
exhibited  ever  since  emancipation  was  unabated. 
Strange  to  say,  they  were  willing  to  be  taxed  and  gave 
even  from  their  poverty  all  they  possibly  could  to 
bring  knowledge  to  their  children. 

The  teachers  in  Arkansas  often  had  a  difficult  task ; 

335 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

but  some  of  them  overcame  even  ugly  prejudice,  which 
is  a  hard  thing  to  do.  One  of  such  teachers,  while  on 
her  way  to  open  her  school  in  the  neighborhood  of  a 
large  plantation,  was  refused  shelter  by  the  owner. 
His  reason  was  that  no  real  lady  would  perform  a 
work  so  discreditable  as  teaching  “  niggers.”  But  in 
a  few  months  she  had  so  won  the  confidence  of  the 
planter  by  her  judicious  conduct  and  Christian  ef¬ 
forts,  that  when  she  was  taken  suddenly  ill,  he  had 
his  doors  opened  to  receive  her  and  saw  to  it  that 
she  had  every  comfort  and  attention  necessary.  I 
enjoyed  immensely  the  stories  of  such  acts  of  gal¬ 
lantry. 

There  was  deep  sympathy  between  teacher  and 
pupil.  A  single  illustration  from  a  school  at  Little 
Rock  will  illustrate.  The  teacher  with  moist  eyes  told 
a  girl  of  perhaps  twelve  years  that  an  act  of  childish 
indiscretion  pained  her.  Seeing  the  tears  the  child 
ran  to  the  teacher  at  once,  asked  her  forgiveness,  and 
said  that  in  the  future  she  would  be  a  good  girl.  This 
spontaneous  act  sensibly  affected  the  whole  school. 
This  teacher,  who  had  taught  the  pupils  to  cast  their 
burdens  on  the  Lord,  was  soon  to  leave  the  school. 
The  time  of  her  going  was  announced.  The  grief  was 
manifest  and  universal.  One  of  the  scholars  arose  and 
asked  permission  to  pray.  Permission  being  given, 
several  scholars  in  succession,  in  simple  and  touching 
language,  asked  forgiveness  for  all  their  errors,  and 
for  blessings  on  their  teacher,  and  that  the  Lord,  if  it 
were  His  will,  would  send  her  back  to  them. 

In  Florida,  Colonel  J.  T.  Sprague  had  succeeded  as 
district  commander  and  assistant  commissioner  to 
General  Foster.  The  State,  ostensibly  for  the  educa¬ 
tion  of  the  black  children,  in  its  new  school  law  im- 

336 


First  Appropriation  by  Congress  for  the  Bureau 

posed  a  tax  of  $1  upon  all  negroes  between  the  ages 
of  twenty-one  and  fifty-five ;  but  very  little  money  was 
obtained  and  so  used.  It  was  to  be  collected  at  the 
same  time  as  the  ordinary  State  tax,  and  paid  into  the 
treasury.  No  such  law  was  imposed  upon  white  men. 
The  law  went  a  step  further — freedmen  not  paupers 
were  to  pay  to  the  State  superintendent,  in  addition  to 
the  tax,  $1  a  month  tuition  for  each  of  their  children 
attending  the  State  schools.  This  State  law  had 
another  feature  capable  of  being  used  oppressively. 
No  person  was  to  tnach  any  school  of  persons  of  color 
without  a  license  costing  $5  per  annum — a  license  that 
the  superintendent  could  give  or  withhold  at  his  pleas¬ 
ure.  The  penalty  for  violating  this  provision  was  a 
fine  of  not  less  than  $100  nor  more  than  $500,  or  im¬ 
prisonment  for  not  less  than  30  nor  more  than  60 
days.  The  object  of  the  license  clause  was  to  ex¬ 
clude  Northern  white  teachers.  If  it  had  not  been 
for  the  presence  of  the  military  forces,  Northern  teach¬ 
ers  already  there  who  had  not  the  superintendents 
certificate,  though  sent  by  the  Government  or  by  be¬ 
nevolent  societies,  would  have  been  fined  or  impris¬ 
oned.  Prejudiced  men  sought  at  every  step  to  impose 
new  and  irksome  burdens  upon  the  newly  made 
citizens. 

It  was,  then,  a  little  refreshing  to  catch  a  word  of 
hope  for  Florida.  I  wrote  at  the  time:  “  Notwith¬ 
standing  the  peculiarity  of  these  enactments,  there  is 
reason  to  believe  that  former  white  residents  are  not 
altogether  averse  to  the  establishment  of  freedmen’s 
schools,  but  are  coming  to  look  upon  them  with  in¬ 
creasing  favor.  During  the  past  year  the  Bureau  had 
repaired  a  large  number  of  church  and  other  build¬ 
ings,  in  order  to  adapt  them  to  school  purposes, 

337 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

and  tlie  educational  results  achieved  give  favorable 
promise.’’ 

General  N.  A.  Miles  took  great  interest  in  the 
freedmen’s  schools  of  North  Carolina  during  this  year, 
and  under  the  management  of  his  assistants  and  him¬ 
self  they  were  exceedingly  prosperous.  lie  built  on 
the  good  foundations  that  his  predecessor,  General  E. 
Whittlesey,  had  laid,  while  the  latter  came  to  my  head¬ 
quarters  to  perform  a  most  important  duty.  The 
pupils  in  North  Carolina  were  greatly  increased  in 
numbers,  and  the  hard-working,  self-denying  teachers 
were  much  encouraged.  Upward  of  10,000  colored 
children  were  enrolled  in  our  schools  in  the  State,  and 
three  or  four  thousand  more  could  have  been  added  if 
teachers  could  have  been  provided  for  them.  The 
rental  of  school  buildings  by  the  Bureau  had  secured 
the  continuance  of  many  schools  which  having  been 
started  during  the  war  would  otherwise  have  been 
obliged  to  disband.  Occasional  adversities  had  ap¬ 
peared,  as  the  burning  of  schoolliouses  in  Green  and 
Chatham  counties  and  the  violent  assault  upon  a 
teacher  in  New  Hanover  county.  But  on  the  whole 
the  prejudices  were  far  less  pronounced.  In  fact,  in 
many  places  former  opposers  had  become  friends  and 
were  encouraging  this  educational  campaign.  It  is  a 
wonderful  thing  to  recall  that  North  Carolina  had 
never  had  before  that  time  a  free  school  system  even 
for  white  pupils,  and  there  were  then  no  publications 
in  the  State  devoted  to  popular  education.  The  death 
of  slavery  unfolded  the  wings  of  knowledge  for  both 
white  and  black  to  brighten  all  the  future  of  the  “  Old 
North  State.” 

In  South  Carolina  General  R.  K.  Scott  was  the  Bu¬ 
reau  representative.  He  reported  that  there  was  a 

338 


First  Appropriation  by  Congress  for  the  Bureau 

class  of  men  within  his  jurisdiction  who  took  the 
greatest  pleasure  in  persecuting  freedmen,  and  consid¬ 
ered  the  murder  of  a  colored  man  only  a  practical 
joke;  that  the  civil  authorities  took  little  pains  to  put 
a  stop  to  such  crimes,  and  that  freedmen  were  killed 
and  buried  without  notice  to  the  authorities.  Yet  by 
the  end  of  October,  1867,  he  considered  his  educational 
work  highly  satisfactory.  Like  North  Carolina,  there 
was  here  no  State  system  of  public  schools  for  any  of 
the  children.  Beyond  the  limits  of  the  Charleston  dis¬ 
trict  there  was  not  a  single  “  free  school  ”  in  that 
State.  The  law,  however,  with  grim  humor  encouraged 
education  by  the  following  exemption:  that  persons 
convicted  of  certain  crimes,  as  burglary  and  arson, 
were  relieved  from  the  death  penalty,  provided  they 
could  read  and  write — a  strange  survival  from  the 
English  law  of  the  “  benefit  of  clergy.”  At  that  time 
30  per  cent,  of  the  white  population  of  that  proud  State 
could  not  write  their  names.  In  the  Charleston  dis¬ 
trict  the  colored  people,  who  were  then  two  thirds  of 
the  whole  population  and  paying  their  proportion  of 
the  taxes,  had  all  their  children  excluded  from  the  new 
“  free  schools,”  i.  e.,  in  the  district  where  schools  just 
started  were  supported  by  30  per  cent,  added  to  the 
general  tax.  The  excuse  was  that  the  general  Govern¬ 
ment  had  freed  the  negroes  and  might  now  educate 
them ;  and  taxes  of  all  kinds  put  upon  the  whites  were 
but  a  meager  return  to  the  State  because  of  the  loss 
of  slave  property.  The  colored  schools  in  South  Caro¬ 
lina,  both  those  aided  by  the  Bureau  and  private  ones 
not  formally  reported,  contained  20,000  pupils.  Some 
of  the  most  prominent  South  Carolinians,  among  them 
the  Bev.  A.  Toomer  Porter,  D.D.,  had  come  forward 
to  take  a  positive  and  earnest  interest  in  the  work  of 

339 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

education  for  all  the  children  of  the  State.  The  latter 
came  to  visit  me  at  Washington,  and  together  we  suc¬ 
ceeded  in  obtaining  the  use  of  the  great  Marine  Hos¬ 
pital  for  the  colored  children.  We  together  visited 
that  building  afterwards  and  found  it  filled  with  pupils 
called  “  colored,”  but  actually  presenting  the  spectacle 
of  all  shades  as  to  the  hair,  the  eyes,  and  the  skin.  It 
was,  indeed,  an  admixture  of  races.  The  whites 
proper  were,  of  course,  not  there.  For  these  the  wor¬ 
thy  doctor  himself  founded  an  institution  of  a  high 
order  which  will  endure. 

For  Georgia,  General  Tillson,  after  his  faithful 
work,  the  middle  of  January  of  this  year  (1867)  was 
replaced  by  Colonel  C.  C.  Sibley  of  the  regular  army. 
Tillson  in  his  conciliatory  policy  had  appointed  as  sub¬ 
agents  many  resident  civilians,  allowing  them  re¬ 
muneration  by  the  collection  of  fees  upon  labor  con¬ 
tracts  of  freedmen.  Upon  Sibley’s  report  that  many 
of  the  resident  agents  had  shamefully  abused  their 
trust,  inflicted  cruel  and  unusual  punishments  on  the 
blacks,  and  were  unfit  from  their  education  and  belief 
in  slavery  to  promote  the  interests  of  free  labor,  I  di¬ 
rected  him  to  discontinue  the  fee  system  altogether 
and  employ  salaried  men  only.  Of  course,  it  took  time 
to  complete  such  a  reorganization  and  some  bitterness 
and  fault-finding  came  from  every  district  which  was 
touched  by  the  change. 

Mississippi  always  afforded  a  peculiar  study  of 
human  nature.  General  T.  J.  Wood,  who  went  there 
after  General  Thomas’s  transfer  to  Washington,  was 
himself  relieved  by  General  A.  C.  Gillem,  an  army  offi¬ 
cer  who  had  long  been  a  special  friend  of  President 
Johnson.  He  entered  upon  his  duties  the  last  part  of 
January,  1867.  Gillem,  whom  I  had  known  as  a  fellow 

340 


First  Appropriation  by  Congress  for  the  Bureau 

cadet,  consulting  bis  hopes,  believed  that  public  sen¬ 
timent  in  some  sections  of  Mississippi  was  then  under¬ 
going  a  most  favorable  change.  He  found  the  freed- 
men  usually  ardent  for  education  and  willing  to  bear 
part  of  the  expense  of  the  children’s  schooling;  and 
also  employers  who  desired  the  friendship  of  their  la¬ 
borers  who  were  encouraging  schools  on  plantations, 
as  well  as  in  villages  and  cities ;  but  the  whole  number 
of  schools  for  the  large  population  of  Mississippi  ag¬ 
gregated  only  about  66  (day  and  night)  with  pupils 
4,697.  General  Gillem  reported  that  while  laborers 
were  working  well  and  complying  more  strictly  than 
heretofore  with  the  terms  of  their  agreements,  a  num¬ 
ber  of  white  citizens  were  disposed  apparently  to  de¬ 
fraud  their  laborers  of  their  earnings  by  quarreling 
with  them  upon  the  slightest  pretext,  and  for  trivial 
reasons  would  drive  them  from  their  homes  by  threats 
of  actual  violence. 

The  burning  of  the  freedmen’s  schoolhouse  at  Co¬ 
lumbus  unhoused  400  pupils.  Teachers  took  scholars 
into  their  quarters,  but  not  half  of  them  could  be  ac¬ 
commodated.  There  was  little  doubt  that  some  evil-dis¬ 
posed  persons  and  not  accident  had  done  the  burning. 
It  was  a  hopeful  sign,  hewever,  that  year  in  Mis¬ 
sissippi  that  John  M.  Langston,  school  inspector,  with 
his  color  against  him,  should  be  everywhere  civilly 
treated.  He  had  many  good  things  to  say  of  both  the 
white  people  and  the  negroes  of  that  State.  The  So¬ 
ciety  of  Friends  was  supplying  the  teachers  and  doing 
good  work  at  Jackson,  the  capital  of  the  State.  Tui¬ 
tion  of  fifty  cents  per  month  was  required  and  the 
small  tuition  was  educational  in  itself,  favoring  self- 
support.  At  Meridian,  the  school,  for  want  of  a  struc¬ 
ture,  had  to  be  held  in  the  Methodist  Church.  Lang- 

341 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

ston  found  six  miles  from  Meridian  a  Southern  white 
lady,  who  was  conducting  a  colored  pay  school  on  her 
own  account  with  90  pupils.  At  Columbus,  Miss.,  the 
white  people  had  already  given  $1,000  to  rebuild  the 
schoolliouse  which  had  been  destroyed.  Mississippi 
thus  at  that  time  appeared  an  inviting  field  and  no  per¬ 
sonal  hostility  whatever  met  this  colored  inspector, 
and  his  picture  of  the  freed  people  was  a  happy  one. 
Many  of  them  were  intelligent,  many  reading  the  news¬ 
papers  and  having  accurate  and  comprehensive  under¬ 
standing  of  the  political  situation.  This  was  a  better 
story  than  Gillem’s.  It  is  a  pity  that  subsequent  years 
had  to  vary  the  tale. 

General  Mower,  in  Louisiana,  gave  a  very  prom¬ 
ising  view  of  the  reaction  during  the  year  (from  1866 
to  1867)  in  favor  of  the  schools  of  his  jurisdiction. 
The  numbers,  however,  were  not  large  enough  for  that 
great  State — only  246  schools  with  pupils  8,435.  More 
than  half  of  these  were  sustained  by  the  freedmen 
themselves.  The  majority  of  the  planters  in  the 
southern  and  western  portions  of  Louisiana  were  still 
openly  against  education  of  the  freedmen,  so  that  plan¬ 
tation  schools  in  those  localities  were  few  indeed. 

By  army  and  Bureau  changes  General  Charles 
Griffin  came  to  be,  the  first  of  this  year,  district  com¬ 
mander  and  assistant  commissioner  in  Texas,  with 
headquarters  at  Galveston.  He  did  good  work  while 
he  lived.  I  wrote  of  him :  “  His  thorough  knowledge 
of  the  people,  eminent  patriotism,  sympathy  with  the 
freedmen,  and  the  remarkable  energy  and  promptness 
which  marked  his  administration  endeared  him  to  the 
laboring  classes  and  commanded  universal  respect.” 
He  fell  a  victim  to  the  epidemic  of  yellow  fever  that 
prevailed  during  the  autumn  of  that  year,  dying  at 

342 


First  Appropriation  by  Congress  for  the  Bureau 

Galveston,  September  15,  1867.  General  J.  J.  Rey¬ 
nolds,  a  respected  instructor  of  mine  at  West  Point, 
replaced  him  for  the  remainder  of  the  year.  Before 
Griffin  came,  Texas  had  been  but  partially  occupied. 
The  troops  had  been  mostly  located  near  the  southern 
coast.  The  agents  of  the  Bureau  could  do  little  or 
nothing  away  from  the  garrisons.  In  remoter  parts, 
robberies,  murders,  and  other  outrageous  crimes  were 
matters  of  daily  occurrence.  Griffin  at  once  distrib¬ 
uted  the  troops  and  by  May,  1867,  had  occupied  57 
subdistricts,  and  sent  out  38  army  officers  and  31  civi¬ 
lians  as  his  representatives ;  all  were  so  stationed  and 
so  supported  as  pretty  thoroughly  to  cover  the  State. 
He  made  these  assistants  his  school  inspectors,  each  of 
his  own  subdistrict.  Schools  were  started.  Every 
school  was  visited  monthly.  Land  was  obtained  by 
donations ;  on  lots  so  obtained  and  held,  usually  by  col¬ 
ored  trustees,  Griffin  permitted  or  caused  school  build¬ 
ings  to  be  erected  and  school  furniture  to  be  supplied. 
Through  our  Northern  benevolent  societies  and 
through  the  freedmen’s  own  support,  the  Texas  schools 
were  multiplied.  Griffin,  shortly  before  his  last  ill¬ 
ness,  wrote :  “  If  the  associations  which  have  done  so 
much  for  freedmen  will  send  me  100  good  teachers  I 
will  furnish  them  schoolhouses  and  aid  besides  to  carry 
on  200  primary  schools.”  He  thus  hoped  to  reach  40,- 
000  children  by  day  schools  and  50,000  adults  by  night 
schools.  Planters  were  now  favoring  schools  and  ap¬ 
plying  to  Griffin  for  teachers.  Of  course  there  were 
drawbacks.  In  parts,  as  I  intimated,  where  despera¬ 
does  had  the  mastery,  public  opinion  was  intensely  hos¬ 
tile  to  any  project  for  the  improvement  of  negroes. 
The  poverty  of  the  white  people  of  Texas  was  never 
so  great  as  elsewhere  in  the  South,  and  they  had  suf- 

343 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

ficient  pride  to  take  care  of  their  own  poor.  This  of 
itself  was  a  great  boon  to  the  assistant  commissioner. 

General  W.  P.  Carlin  had  become  district  com¬ 
mander  and  assistant  commissioner  for  Tennessee. 
His  account  of  the  conduct  of  employers  after  the 
freedmen  had  cast  their  first  ballot,  which  happened 
this  year,  was  not  very  reassuring.  They  drove  away 
and  persecuted  laborers  who  had  voted  for  candidates 
that  the  planters  did  not  approve.  From  June  to  Oc¬ 
tober  there  were  recorded  at  his  headquarters  25  mur¬ 
ders,  35  assaults  with  intent  to  kill,  83  cases  of  assault 
and  battery,  4  of  rape,  and  4  of  arson;  all  these  were 
perpetrated  against  the  freed  people  of  Tennessee. 
Military  courts  had  been  relaxed  and  the  civil  law  was 
again  in  full  control.  But  not  one  murderer  anywhere 
in  the  State  had  been  punished,  and  the  majority  of 
other  criminals  had  escaped  every  penalty  of  the  law; 
while  the  few  brought  to  trial  had  been  very  leniently 
dealt  with.  A  large  number  of  additional  outrages 
were  committed  here  and  there  which  were  not  offi¬ 
cially  reported  to  our  agents,  and  so  were  never  prop¬ 
erly  recorded. 

Near  the  close  of  1867  in  Tennessee  the  status  of 
schools  was  better  than  that  of  justice,  there  being  an 
enrollment  of  9,451  pupils.  The  greater  part  were  car¬ 
ried  on  by  the  Northern  societies,  but  the  freedmen, 
out  of  their  small  possessions,  had  in  one  month  con¬ 
tributed  nearly  $2,000.  The  Tennessee  legislature  had, 
in  addition  to  white  schools,  provided  for  colored 
schools,  putting  one  in  any  district  or  town  where 
there  were  upward  of  25  scholars,  and  also  had  estab¬ 
lished  a  permanent  tax  of  10  mills  upon  taxable  prop¬ 
erty  for  school  support.  Just  as  soon  in  1868  as  this 
fund  should  become  available,  the  State  superintend- 

344 


First  Appropriation  by  Congress  for  the  Bureau 

ent  promised  to  cooperate  with  our  Bureau  officers 
and  earnestly  push  the  educational  work.  So  there 
was  hope  ahead  for  Tennessee. 

General  Sidney  Burbank  had  relieved  General 
Davis  about  the  middle  of  February  in  Kentucky. 
This  State  was  slow  to  modify  objectionable  laws  in 
spite  of  the  Thirteenth  and  Fourteenth  Amendments 
of  the  United  States  Constitution  and  the  clear-cut 
Civil-Rights-Law,  which  necessitated  the  eventual  re¬ 
peal  of  every  cruel  and  unjust  measure.  The  State 
Court  of  Appeals  had  in  fact  retarded  progress  by 
giving  a  decision  against  the  constitutionality  of 
the  Civil  Rights  Act,  that  is,  within  the  State  juris¬ 
diction. 

Kentucky  in  its  criminal  calendar  for  the  year  had 
kept  abreast  of  Tennessee.  The  record  for  the  year 
was:  Murders,  20;  shootings,  18;  rape,  11;  other  mal¬ 
treatments,  270.  Total  outrages  of  whites  perpetrated 
upon  the  freedmen,  319  recorded  cases. 

But  a  little  light  dawned  upon  the  State.  United 
States  Judges  Swayne  and  Ballard  had  heard  cases  in 
the  District  Court  in  Kentucky,  and  strongly  sustained 
the  Civil-Rights-Law.  This  was  auspicious  for  the 
negroes.  The  testimony,  however,  that  came  to  me 
from  Kentucky,  to  my  surprise  and  comfort,  showed 
that  the  schools  had  more  than  held  their  own,  and  had 
done  so  in  spite  of  the  contentions  and  hatreds  due  to 
the  State’s  action  in  all  things  that  affected  the  courts 
or  politics.  Yet  I  found  that  a  large  number  of  white 
citizens  had  manifested  a  bitter  opposition  to  educa¬ 
tion  of  all  colored  children,  and  their  opposition  had 
tended  to  dishearten  freedmen  and  thwart  the  efforts 
of  our  workers.  Threats  had  been  made  in  neighbor¬ 
hoods,  and  oft  repeated  to  destroy  the  school  buildings. 

345 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

Tlie  opposers  of  education  were,  of  course,  deterred 
in  many  places  by  the  presence  of  our  soldiers.  In  one 
place  a  teacher,  an  upright  and  educated  clergyman, 
having  been  mobbed,  was,  with  his  family,  driven  out 
of  town.  Such  conduct  made  our  Northern  societies  de¬ 
sirous  to  go  elsewhere,  where  they  could  receive  pro¬ 
tection  and  better  treatment.  The  freedmen  freely 
offered  their  churches  for  the  schools,  and  the  assistant 
commissioner  endeavored  to  protect  the  buildings 
against  that  most  unreasonable  public  sentiment  which 
incessantly  sought  their  destruction.  Notwithstanding 
the  favorable  showing  of  numbers  in  the  schools  it  was 
but  a  nucleus.  Against  the  nearly  6,000  at  school  up¬ 
ward  of  30,000  children  in  Kentucky  had  yet  no 
school  advantages  whatever.  Not  yet  in  this  State 
could  my  representative,  the  assistant  commissioner, 
find  one  prominent  man,  though  he  might  admit  in 
private  the  reasonableness  of  education,  who  dared 
openly  to  avow  his  conviction. 

The  prejudice  is  illustrated  by  a  single  instance: 
At  the  Walnut  Street  Baptist  Church  in  Louisville,' 
one  of  our  white  teachers  during  a  revival  applied  for 
admission  to  fellowship.  The  pastor  and  other  officers 
found  her  qualified  in  every  way,  sent  her  the  baptis¬ 
mal  robe,  and  made  all  arrangements  for  her  reception. 
But  as  soon  as  they  heard  that  she  taught  a  freedmen’s 
school,  and  lived  at  the  house  of  a  clergyman  who  was 
pastor  of  a  colored  church,  they  forbade  her  admis¬ 
sion.  Even  religious  zeal  could  not  break  the  adaman¬ 
tine  shell  of  unreasoning  prejudice. 

Nearer  Washington,  matters  in  all  respects  touch¬ 
ing  Bureau  operations  during  the  year  gave  assurance 
that  at  the  end  of  the  term  fixed  by  law,  July  16,  1868, 
I  could  lay  down  my  heavy  burden  of  responsibility 

346 


First  Appropriation  by  Congress  for  the  Bureau 

with  good  hope  of  the  future  if  not  with  positive  sat¬ 
isfaction. 

I  remember  that  I  found  the  subdistrict  of  Lynch¬ 
burg,  of  which  General  N.  M.  Curtis  had  charge,  es¬ 
pecially  satisfactory.  He  not  only  successfully  encour¬ 
aged  the  school  work  but  afforded  a  good  example  in 
harmonizing  the  labor  interest  and  promoting  good¬ 
will  between  the  white  people  and  the  freedmen. 

In  Virginia  Colonel  Brown  had,  by  the  action  of  his 
district  commander,  passed  from  the  staff  back  to  the 
office  of  full  assistant  commissioner,  and  all  the  State 
of  Virginia  had  again  been  put  under  his  supervision. 

General  S.  C.  Armstrong,  who  had  been  sent  to  Vir¬ 
ginia  and  had  been  placed  in  charge  of  a  district  of 
fifteen  or  more  counties,  withdrew  from  them  and  be¬ 
gan  work  at  Hampton  during  the  year  1867. 

A  few  words  from  his  pen  will  show  the  fairness  of 
his  mind  and  account  somewhat  for  his  subsequent  and 
successful  career  at  the  Hampton  Normal  and  Agricul¬ 
tural  Institute.  He  wrote:  “  I  cannot  refrain  from  ex¬ 
pressing  my  satisfaction  and  surprise  at  the  profi¬ 
ciency  of  the  pupils  in  the  Hampton  schools  as  mani¬ 
fested  in  the  examination  of  the  28th  ultimo.  .  .  . 
v  “I  believe  that  the  finest  intellectual  achievements 
are  possible  to  colored  children;  no  one  who  listened 
to  the  prompt  answers  or  perceived  the  ‘  snap  ’  of  the 
pupils  during  the  exercises  can  doubt  it.  What  I  was. 
most  gratified  with  was  the  enthusiasm  for  and  pride; 
in  knowledge,  which  is  a  motive  power  that,  if  given 
play,  will  carry  them  up  to  noble  attainments.”  Arm¬ 
strong  thus  studied  the  situation  at  Hampton;  came 
to  the  true  conclusions,  and  made  them  the  stepping- 
stone  to  his  own  great  achievements  in  the  line  of 
Christian  training. 


347 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

General  C.  H.  Gregory  was  made  assistant  commis¬ 
sioner  for  Maryland  and  Delaware,  and  General  C.  H. 
Howard  continued  in  charge  of  the  District  of  Colum¬ 
bia  and  West  Virginia.  Under  the  latter  educational 
work  was  cooperative  and  supplemental  and  the  Dis¬ 
trict  of  Columbia  the  principal  field.  Benevolent  asso¬ 
ciations  and  freedmen’s  contributions  sustained  the 
schools  to  the  extent  of  paying  the  salaries  of  the 
teachers  and  incidental  expenses.  But  our  Bureau  fur¬ 
nished  the  buildings  by  rental  or  by  construction,  and 
aided  the  societies  as  elsewhere  by  transportation  of 
their  teachers  to  places  where  the  schools  were;  also 
their  agents  and  considerable  of  their  furnishing  mate¬ 
rial  were  so  forwarded. 

West  Virginia,  which  was  from  its  birth  always  a 
loyal  State,  was  really  ahead  even  of  the  border  States 
in  its  arrangement  for  free  education.  It  had  in  1867 
an  impartial  system ;  it  was  careful  to  keep  the  colored 
and  white  children  separate;  the  levying  of  taxes,  the 
building  of  schoolhouses,  and  the  employing  of  teach¬ 
ers  were  entirely  in  the  hands  of  white  men.  This  was 
a  fact  not  at  all  to  be  wondered  at  nor  deplored,  con¬ 
sidering  the  short  period  since  emancipation  came; 
there  were,  in  general,  honest  and  conscientious  deal¬ 
ings. 

Under  the  new  Bureau  law  approved  July  16,  1866, 
which  extended  its  provisions  and  care  to  all  loyal 
refugees  and  freedmen,  Missouri  and  Kansas  consti¬ 
tuted  a  nominal  district  over  which  Lieutenant  Colonel 
F.  A.  Seeley  was  placed  and  acted  especially  as  super¬ 
intendent  of  education.  The  educational  law  of  Mis¬ 
souri  was  quite  as  good  as  that  of  West  Virginia.  It 
did  the  legislation  of  that  State  great  credit  in  its  lib¬ 
eral  provisions ;  and  could  the  dispositions  of  the  peo- 

348 


First  Appropriation  by  Congress  for  the  Bureau 

pie  have  been  as  good  as  that  of  the  legislators  at  least 
two  thirds  of  the  children  of  the  freedmen  would  this 
year  (1867)  have  been  at  school. 

Outside  of  St.  Louis,  however,  they  had  not  yet  the 
advantages  of  a  single  public  educational  institution; 
although  along  the  line  of  the  railroads  there  was 
springing  up  a  favorable  feeling;  in  other  portions 
of  the  State  the  hostility  to  negro  schools  was  very 
pronounced  and  the  teachers  of  freedmen  were  stoutly 
opposed  by  the  white  residents. 

In  Kansas,  whither  large  numbers  of  negroes  who 
had  escaped  from  the  calamities  of  war  or  from  slav¬ 
ery  had  fled,  attention  was  at  once  given  by  the  citi¬ 
zens  to  the  children’s  education.  Nearly  2,000  colored 
pupils  were  this  year  enrolled,  though  there  was  in 
this  State  but  a  fraction  of  colored  population  com¬ 
pared  with  the  neighboring  State  of  Missouri. 


349 


CHAPTER  LVI 


FAMINE  BELIEFS;  PAYING  SOLDIERS*  BOUNTIES,  AND  SUM¬ 
MARY  OF  WORK  ACCOMPLISHED 

TN  parts  of  our  Southern  States  a  famine  existed 
**■  early  in  March,  1867 ;  the  published  reports  of  the 
extensive  destitution  of  all  classes  of  people,  including 
the  freedmen,  became  so  heartrending,  that  for  once  I 
anticipated  the  action  of  Congress.  It  was  one  offense 
of  which  none  of  those  who  were  hostile  to  my  admin¬ 
istration  ever  complained.  I  had  abundant  authority 
so  far  as  the  loyal  refugees  and  freedmen  were  in¬ 
volved  to  feed  them  to  the  extent  of  our  food  appro¬ 
priation;  but  we  had  reduced  this  number  to  narrow 
limits  when  this  famine  fell  upon  the  Southern  coast. 
In  some  counties  actual  starvation  had  set  in.  I  hur¬ 
ried  off  my  quartermaster,  as  soon  as  I  was  convinced, 
to  Alexandria,  and  succeeded  in  getting  Mr.  McKen¬ 
zie,  a  wealthy  and  prominent  citizen  of  that  city,  to 
load  a  vessel  with  the  necessaries  of  life  and  send  them 
off  in  the  quickest  time.  I  also  shipped  other  supplies 
to  points  where  the  suffering  appeared  greatest;  then 
going  before  a  Senate  committee  reported  what  I  had 
done.  One  of  the  most  conservative  of  our  Northern 
members  said  at  first:  “We  will  not  give  help  to  reb¬ 
els.”  I  insisted  stoutly :  “  The  rebellion  is  over ;  peo¬ 
ple  are  starving,  and  humanity  demands  that  we  succor 
them.  It  is  not  a  question  now  of  whether  we  shall 
help  those  who  are  likely  to  perish,  for  I  have  already 
made  a  beginning  and  have  come  to  Congress  to  ask 
to  be  sustained.  I  have  sent  a  shipload  of  provisions 

350 


Famine  Reliefs 


and  want  approval.”  A  joint  resolution  (March  30, 
1867)  followed;  it  was  the  substantial  answer  to  my 
petition.  My  action  was  thns  approved. 

The  public  resolution  directed  the  Bureau :  “  To 
issue  supplies  of  food  sufficient  to  prevent  starvation 
or  extreme  want  to  any  and  all  classes  of  destitute  and 
helpless  persons  in  those  Southern  and  Southwestern 
States  where  failure  of  the  crops  and  other  causes  have 
occasioned  widespread  destitution.”  The  expenditure 
itself  was  not  to  extend  beyond  my  existing  appropria¬ 
tions,  but  the  Congress  authorized  the  use  for  this  pur¬ 
pose  of  unexpended  balances  of  appropriations  which 
had  been  made  for  other  objects.  After  carefully  con¬ 
sidering  the  items  of  our  funds  on  hand,  I  saw  that  we 
would  not  require  for  transportation  all  the  money 
held  under  that  head.  The  necessity  for  large  remov¬ 
als  of  freedmen  or  refugees  had  now  ceased.  There¬ 
upon,  four  days  after  the  passage  of  the  law,  April  3, 
1867,  I  set  apart  $500,000  to  go  as  far  as  it  could 
toward  the  relief  of  the  great  destitution.  I  made  the 
following  estimate :  In  Tennessee,  persons  needing  aid, 
2,000;  in  Mississippi,  3,900;  in  Alabama,  15,000;  in 
Georgia,  12,500;  in  South  Carolina,  10,000;  in  North 
Carolina,  5,545,  and  in  Virginia,  5,000 ;  total  destitutes, 
53,945.  Of  this  number  30,000  were  children  under  14, 
giving  23,945  adults. 

For  a  general  rule,  I  thought  it  safer  to  begin  the 


issue  with  corn  and  pork. 

Com  for  adults . 

Corn  for  children . 

5,363,680  lbs. 
3,160,000  lbs. 

95,780  bu. 
60,000  bu. 

Total . 

Pork — Total . 

1,246,240  lbs. 

155,780  bu. 
6,232  bbl. 

Estimated  cost  of  the  corn . 

Estimated  cost  of  the  pork . . 

. . $233,670 

.  186,960 

Making  a  total  of . . 

. $420,630 

351 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

On  April  4tli  General  Eliphalet  Whittlesey,  then 
the  inspector  general  of  the  Bureau  and  recently 
brought  from  North  Carolina,  was  appointed  to  super¬ 
intend  the  distribution  of  the  supplies.  All  the  clerical 
force  which  he  might  require  was  placed  at  his  service. 
The  assistant  commissioners  in  the  States  concerned 
were  notified  of  this  appointment  and  each  was  ordered 
to  assign  a  faithful  and  efficient  officer  to  act  in  this 
relief  work  as  a  commissary  for  his  State.  This  officer 
was  in  this  matter  over  the  local  agents,  who  receipted 
in  bulk  for  all  the  supplies  distributed  to  the  needy; 
they  made  all  proper  returns  and  vouchers,  as  was 
done  in  the  army  subsistence  department.  No  fund 
was  ever  better  regulated,  and  the  reports  of  General 
Whittlesey  were  so  neat  and  clear  that  accounting  offi¬ 
cers  highly  complimented  them. 

Whittlesey  closed  his  able  reports  made  near  the 
end  of  the  year  1867,  in  a  condensed  paragraph :  “  The 
whole  expense  incurred  in  giving  this  relief  has  been 
$445,993.36,  i.  e.,  about  $8  to  each  person  for  the  period 
of  four  months,  or  $2  per  month.  There  remain  on 
hand  some  commissary  stores,  which  are  reserved  for 
the  most  destitute  who  will  require  help  during  the 
coming  winter.” 

Little  evidence  of  deception  or  fraud  was  found 
anywhere  in  the  vast  field  supplied,  and  showed  that 
for  the  most  part  the  relief,  small  as  it  was,  was  timely 
and  effective.  As  the  incoming  corn  crop  in  the  South 
and  West  was  good,  the  relief,  after  the  middle  of 
August,  was  discontinued.  The  amount  given  to  an 
individual  appears  very  small;  but  there  was  an  in¬ 
direct  additional  supply  through  our  associate  benevo¬ 
lent  societies.  I  have  credited  them  in  school  aid  with 
about  one  half.  In  this  relief  for  the  famine  also,  they 

352 


Famine  Reliefs 


did  about  as  much ;  they  supplied  funds  where  the  fam¬ 
ine  was  severest,  sending  through  their  teachers  and 
agents  sometimes  food  and  sometimes  clothing.  Gen¬ 
eral  Whittlesey  said  that  voluntary  contributions  from 
this  source  had  served  to  lessen  the  demand  so  much 
that  the  expenditure  had  fallen  far  short  of  the  origi¬ 
nal  estimate  of  the  relief  needed.  Surely  this  was  an 
unusual  exhibit. 

Our  Claim  Division  was  of  great  help  in  protect¬ 
ing  ignorant  colored  soldiers  and  sailors,  now  scat¬ 
tered  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  who  were 
claimants  for  bounties,  back  pay,  and  prize  moneys. 
Referring  to  this  General  Swayne  remarks :  “  Five 
hundred  and  sixteen  applicants  passed  through  my 
office  (at  Montgomery,  Ala.)  during  the  month  of  Au¬ 
gust.  There  is  reason  to  believe  that  convenient  and 
gratuitous  assistance  is  almost  indispensable  to  the 
parties  in  interest.”  Yet  without  further  legislation 
the  Bureau  could  not  give  sufficient  protection.  There 
were  some  claim  agents  who  had  taken  advantage  of 
the  late  colored  soldiers.  They  at  first  charged  them 
exorbitant  fees.  Then  by  various  expedients  they 
managed  to  get  from  them  a  large  part  of  their  claims. 
As  long  as  they  could  work  into  the  Treasury  the 
receipts  well  drawn  up,  signed  and  witnessed,  and 
satisfy  the  deceived  soldier  that  his  cash  in  hand  was 
all  he  could  get,  and  all  right,  the  fraudulent  claim 
agent  laughed  at  the  feeble  complaints  that  subse¬ 
quently  reached  his  ears,  and  escaped  with  the  poor 
man’s  money  too  often  without  punishment.  Officers 
of  the  treasury  and  myself,  finding  that  there  were  on 
foot  extensive  frauds  of  the  kind  described,  brought 
the  matter  to  the  attention  of  Congress. 

The  Hon.  Henry  Wilson  introduced  a  joint  reso- 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

lution  in  the  Senate,  March  12,  1867,  entitled :  A  Reso¬ 
lution  in  reference  to  the  collection  and  payment  of 
moneys  due  colored  soldiers,  sailors,  and  marines,  or 
their  heirs. 

This  resolution  underwent  considerable  discussion, 
and  no  little  opposition.  It  provided  that  all  checks 
for  the  object  named  should  be  made  payable  to  me  as 
commissioner,  or  to  my  order.  Senator  Wilson  showed 
abundant  evidence  of  the  frauds  against  the  soldiers 
and  marines  that  had  been  already  committed,  and 
averred  that  the  second  comptroller  and  the  second 
auditor  urged  the  passage  of  the  resolution.  Mr.  Wil¬ 
son  was  asked  if  General  Howard  should  not  be  re¬ 
quired  to  give  bonds,  and  replied :  “  I  have  no  objection 
to  his  giving  bond,  but  this  is  imposing  upon  him  a 
duty  for  which  he  gets  nothing,  and  it  is  a  great  re¬ 
sponsibility.  I  think  it  is  enough  to  ask  him  to  do  this 
work.”  Even  while  I  was  frequently  consulted  and 
was  myself  urging  some  legislation  to  protect  these 
wards  of  the  Government,  I  did  not  dream  of  the  pas¬ 
sage  of  such  an  Act  as  the  one  that  finally  went 
through  both  Houses  and  became  a  law  (March  29, 
1867).  All  references  to  the  help  of  the  branches  of 
the  Freedmen’s  Bank  which  Mr.  Wilson  proposed  and 
embodied  in  his  bill,  an  institution  chartered  by  Con¬ 
gress  to  do  a  banking  business  in  the  South,  but  with 
which  I  was  not  connected,  were  thrown  out  by  the 
amendments.  My  duties  and  responsibilities  under 
the  resolution  which  finally  passed  may  be  thus 
summed  up : 

1.  Every  claim  of  the  colored  soldiers,  sailors,  and 
marines,  or  their  heirs,  for  bounty,  back  pay,  or  prize 
money,  no  matter  by  whom  prosecuted,  was  to  be  paid 
by  me,  or  through  me,  as  commissioner. 

354 


Famine  Reliefs 


2.  Any  agent  or  attorney,  if  he  had  prosecuted  the 
claim,  was  to  he  paid  by  me  his  lawful  fee. 

3.  The  claimant  was  to  be  discovered,  identified, 
and  settled  with  through  my  officers  and  myself,  not  in 
checks  or  drafts  but  in  current  funds. 

4.  I  was  responsible  for  the  safe  custody  and  faith¬ 
ful  disbursement  of  all  the  funds  involved.  Probably 
at  that  time  there  were  over  50,000  colored  soldiers 
and  sailors  who  had  not  yet  been  fully  paid. 

5.  All  this  disbursement  was  to  be  done  under  the 
same  regulations  as  those  which  governed  other  dis¬ 
bursing  officers  of  the  army. 

Fortunately,  well-disposed  agents  and  attorneys  be¬ 
came  my  friends;  but  the  others,  not  well  disposed, 
made  indescribable  trouble  for  my  officers  and  agents, 
and  finally  involved  me,  myself,  in  the  meshes  of  accu¬ 
sation,  personal  expense,  and  Congressional  and  mili¬ 
tary  investigations  very  prolonged,  and  which  have 
become  historic.  There  were  two  points  of  attack  that 
worried  me  most:  one  was  to  work  carefully  through 
political  influence  to  get  a  dishonest  field  agent  ap¬ 
pointed  who  probably  would  not  only  defraud  the  Gov¬ 
ernment,  but  would  delude  the  poor  claimant.  Glad  to 
get  even  a  small  sum,  the  soldier  would  go  off  without 
objection  or  complaint,  having  in  some  instances  re¬ 
ceived  less  than  half  his  due.  By  the  most  thorough 
care  and  inspection  the  fraudulent  were  caught.  We 
had,  all  told,  but  a  very  limited  number  of  such  cases. 
The  second  point  of  attack  was  to  deceive  the  honest 
field  agent,  by  palming  off  upon  him  frauds,  i.  e., 
wrong  men,  who  had  been  coached  enough  to  prove 
themselves  the  genuine  claimants,  and  so  carry  off  the 
currency  and  divide  with  the  dishonest  attorneys. 
These  cases  were  more  frequent  than  the  first ;  but  the 

355 


Autobiography  of  G^n.  O.  O.  Howard 

real  claimants  very  often  helped  us  to  detect  that  sort 
of  crime,  and  so  checked  its  occurrence  or  repetition. 
When  the  bona  fide  soldier  or  sailor  had  died,  the 
crime,  which  was  a  robbery  of  the  heirs,  was  harder 
to  uncover  and  punish.  There  was  but  one  transaction 
in  connection  with  these  moneys  held  by  me  for  the 
soldiers  and  sailors  (after  remaining  for  six  months 
or  more  to  my  credit  at  authorized  depositaries)  of 
which  some  of  my  real  friends  complained;  it  was  put¬ 
ting  the  waiting  money  into  United  States  bonds. 

The  use  I  made  of  the  interest  on  the  bonds  was  to 
meet  cases  where  the  true  claimants  had  been  de¬ 
frauded,  as  heretofore  explained,  and  for  such  other 
purposes  as  were  by  law  authorized  for  any  and  all 
refugees  and  freedmen’s  funds.  I  made  the  invest¬ 
ment  under  the  advice  of  Dr.  Brodhead,  the  venerable 
second  comptroller.  Doubtless  his  interpretation  of 
all  the  laws  which  were  involved,  was  right.  On  his 
clear  and  fearless  decisions  all  War  Department  dis¬ 
bursing  officers  always  depended  for  the  final  adjust¬ 
ment  of  their  money  accounts. 

A  brief  summary  will  set  forth  in  convenient  form 
the  vast  work  touching  back  pay,  bounty,  and  prize 
money  for  colored  claimants.  All  cases  intrusted  to 
me  by  the  claimant  were  settled  without  necessitating 
attorney’s  fees.  After  the  bounty  law  of  March,  1867, 
went  into  effect,  up  to  October,  1870,  5,108  such  cases 
were  thus  brought  in,  saving  to  freedmen  concerned 
$51,080  legal  fees,  and,  judging  from  attempts  at  fraud 
continually  occurring,  many  times  that  sum  in  illegal 
fees  which  would  have  been  extorted  from  them  on 
every  conceivable  pretext  by  greedy  attorneys.  The 
whole  amount  paid  from  the  passage  of  the  Act  to 
October,  1870,  was  $7,683,618.61.  At  the  close  of  the 

356 


Famine  Reliefs 


Bureau  we  had  settled  over  40,000  cases  and  turned 
over  but  a  few  as  yet  unsettled  to  the  Secretary  of 
War.  It  was  not  too  much  to  affirm  that  through  the 
labors  and  vigilance  of  the  officers  and  agents  of  the 
Bureau,  enough  had  been  saved  to  the  Government  and 
to  deserving  claimants  to  justify  all  the  expense  in¬ 
volved. 

By  the  autumn  of  1867  there  was  food  generally 
throughout  the  South,  and  the  district  commanders,  in 
connection  with  their  military  commands  and  the  work 
of  political  reconstruction,  were  still  acting  for  me  as 
assistant  commissioners. 

During  this  and  the  next  year  it  was  constantly  as¬ 
serted  by  opponents  and  by  the  press  in  some  parts  of 
the  country  that  I  was  opposed  to  closing  out  the 
Bureau  work.  This  statement  was  untrue.  I  did  wish 
to  close  out  all  other  parts  as  rapidly  as  possible  and 
have  the  educational  work  continued  as  long  as  neces¬ 
sary.  At  the  end  of  1868  I  wrote  this  to  the  Secretary 
of  War:  “Many  entreaties  have  come  to  me  from 
Southern  men,  white  and  colored,  and  from  several 
commissioners,  to  urge  upon  Congress  the  continuance 
of  the  operations  of  this  Bureau  beyond  the  time  of  its 
limit  by  law  (January  1,  1869).  But  after  having  care¬ 
fully  considered  the  whole  subject,  I  believe  it  is  better 
not  to  do  so” 

It  was  extremely  difficult  to  induce  the  cities  and 
counties  to  assume  the  charge  of  the  indigent,  and  they 
would  not  do  so  while  the  general  Government  fur¬ 
nished  assistance,  so  I  added :  “  Much  suffering  will 
doubtless  result  from  the  complete  withdrawal  of  the 
Bureau  during  the  coming  winter  in  Virginia  and  Mis¬ 
sissippi  unless  some  provision  (for  the  poor)  be  made 
by  the  district  commanders.  I  therefore  recommend 

357 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

tliat  a  special  appropriation  be  placed  in  their  hands  to 
enable  them  to  defray  the  expense  of  the  freedmen’s 
hospitals  in  Richmond  and  Vicksburg.”  I  also  recom¬ 
mended  the  continuance  of  a  hospital  or  an  asylum  for 
the  District  of  Columbia  to  be  used  for  the  aged  and 
infirm  and  the  many  sick  who  had  come  there.  They 
had  come  from  the  freedmen’s  village,  near  Arlington, 
from  other  parts  of  Virginia,  from  Maryland,  and 
elsewhere  as  refugees.  I  also  urged  provision  for  the 
hospital  at  New  Orleans  which  contained  the  aged,  the 
infirm,  and  the  insane.  I  asked  that  the  military  com¬ 
mander  of  Louisiana  have  the  care  of  the  New  Orleans 
hospital. 

Congressmen,  who  were  willing  to  impute  good  mo¬ 
tives,  saw  clearly  that  I  was  acting  in  good  faith,  and 
was  earnestly  desirous  of  closing  out  all  the  Bureau 
work  possible  without  producing  suffering  or  acting 
with  inhumanity,  but  that  I  hoped  to  hold  steadily  to 
aiding  the  faithful  colored  soldiers  and  sailors  till  that 
Claim  Division  should  properly  end ;  and,  further,  they 
saw  that  I  wished  to  stimulate  every  educational  in- 
terest  till  our  Government  schools  and  those  of  benevo¬ 
lent  societies  should  become  absorbed  in  a  grand  free 
system ;  we  hoped  such  a  system  would  be  inaugurated 
by  each  separate  State  after  the  processes  of  recon¬ 
struction  had  had  time  to  crystallize. 

To  further  my  wishes  and  recommendations,  Con¬ 
gress  gave  us  the  Act  of  June  24, 1868.  This  continued 
the  Bureau  with  some  modifications,  to  July  16,  1869. 
It  directed  after  discontinuance  at  any  point,  that  the 
Secretary  of  War  should  reestablish  it  in  any  place 
where  he  was  satisfied  the  safety  of  the  freedmen  re¬ 
quired  it. 

The  second  paragraph  enabled  the  secretary,  after 

358 


Famine  Reliefs 


advising  with  the  commissioner,  to  discontinue  the  Bu¬ 
reau  from  any  State  fully  restored  in  its  constitutional 
relations  with  the  United  States,  excepting  the  “  Edu¬ 
cational  Division,”  which  was  to  continue  in  each  State 
till  suitable  provision  for  the  education  of  the  children 
of  freedmen  had  been  made  by  the  State. 

The  third  section  enabled  me  to  apply  all  unex¬ 
pended  balances  to  the  education  of  freedmen  and 
refugees. 

The  fourth  section  gave  us  the  power  to  retain  vol¬ 
unteer  and  veteran  reserve  officers  in  the  service  of  the 
Bureau  with  their  proper  pay,  and  the  fifth  and  last 
section  enabled  me  to  sell  buildings  to  associations, 
corporate  bodies,  or  trustees;  this  was  to  be  done 
either  for  the  relief  of  want  or  for  purposes  of  edu¬ 
cation. 

This  Act  of  Congress  became  a  law  without  the  ap¬ 
proval  of  President  Johnson,  he  permitting  the  ten 
days  allowed  for  his  veto  to  elapse  without  returning 
it  to  the  House  where  it  originated. 

Owing  to  the  heated  controversy  still  going  on  be¬ 
tween  the  President  and  Congress,  it  was  thought  that 
the  President  would  cause  my  removal,  the  air  being 
full  of  rumors  to  that  effect,  so  that  the  work  of  recon¬ 
struction  as  provided  by  the  several  Acts  would  be  re¬ 
tarded  by  his  replacing  me  by  an  opponent  of  Con¬ 
gress.  To  prevent  that,  the  Act  of  June  24tli  was 
followed  by  another  brief  Act,  that  of  July  25,  1868, 
entitled :  “  An  Act  relating  to  the  Freedmen’ s  Bureau, 
and  providing  for  its  discontinuance.”  The  first  para¬ 
graph  provided  that  I  should  be  continued  as  commis¬ 
sioner  while  the  Bureau  lived ;  that  in  case  of  vacancy 
by  death  or  resignation,  the  Secretary  of  War  should 
nominate  and  the  Senate  confirm  a  new  commissioner, 

359 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

or  during  the  recess  of  Congress  that  the  acting  assist¬ 
ant  adjutant  general  of  the  Bureau  should  do  the  work. 
The  second  and  last  paragraph  directed  me  to  discon¬ 
tinue  the  Bureau  altogether  on  January  1,  1869,  except 
the  educational  department  and  payment  of  bounties 
and  other  dues  to  colored  soldiers  and  sailors  or  their 
heirs.  These  two  latter  divisions  were  to  go  on  until 
otherwise  ordered  by  Act  of  Congress. 

Very  naturally  this  bill  was  vetoed  by  the  Presi¬ 
dent,  but  was  speedily  passed  by  both  the  Senate  and 
the  House  over  his  veto,  and  so  became  a  law. 

To  close  out  my  general  work,  and  to  aid  schools 
and  pay  the  bounties,  I  was  equipped  with  just  the 
right  kind  of  an  organization,  and  also  relieved  of 
much  of  the  previous  responsibility  and  consequent 
anxiety.  The  necessary  orders  and  instructions  were 
issued  very  soon  after  the  publication  of  the  Act  of 
Congress  which,  in  fact,  was  to  effect  the  substantial 
close  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau. 

Officers,  agents,  and  clerks  were  notified  that  their 
services  would  be  no  longer  required  after  December 
31,  1868.  The  freedmen  were  generally  carefully  ap¬ 
prised  of  the  situation,  and  shown  that  they  must  now 
look  to  the  civil  magistrates  more  directly  than  hereto¬ 
fore  for  protection  of  their  rights  and  redress  of  their 
wrongs,  and  that  supplies  of  food  and  clothing  for  the 
destitute,  medicines  and  care  for  the  sick,  the  trans¬ 
portation  of  laborers  to  new  homes,  and  all  aid  and 
oversight  of  contracts  must  very  soon  cease  to  come 
to  them  from  the  general  Government. 

Disbursing  officers  were  directed  promptly  to  settle 
outstanding  obligations,  and  to  sell  the  public  prop¬ 
erty  no  longer  needed.  “  Abandoned  lands  and  lots,” 
now  few  in  number,  must  at  once  go  to  their  owners, 

360 


Famine  Reliefs 

where  it  was  possible  to  find  them,  or  be  dropped  from 
their  returns. 

All  this  served  as  a  sufficient  warning,  we  thought, 
to  all  parties  concerned.  But  I  found  that  the  f reed- 
men’s  hospitals  at  New  Orleans,  Vicksburg,  Louisville, 
Richmond,  and  Washington  could  not  be  abolished  so 
soon  without  exposing  the  numerous  helpless  patients 
therein  to  great  distress.  The  local  authorities  re¬ 
fused  to  assume  charge,  so  that  pressed  by  an  extreme 
necessity,  with  the  assent  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  I 
continued  them  for  a  while,  and  reported  my  action  to 
Congress.  All  my  action,  by  an  Act  approved  April  7, 
1869,  was  formally  approved  by  that  body.  Congress 
instructed  me  then  to  discontinue  these  hospitals  as 
soon  as  practicable  in  the  discretion  of  the  President 
of  the  United  States.  General  Grant,  after  March  4tli, 
was  the  President,  so  that  no  unkind  action  was  feared. 
His  discretion  and  mine  naturally  agreed.  No  imme¬ 
diate  troubles  worth  the  record  followed  the  discon¬ 
tinuance  of  the  Bureau.  The  officers  paying  bounties 
had  to  be  kept,  and  nearly  all  the  school  machinery  re¬ 
mained  intact,  and  the  military  arm,  with  General 
Grant  for  President  and  General  Sherman  for  army 
commander,  was  still  garrisoning  the  entire  Southern 
field.  Thus  my  trying  work  and  responsibility  ap¬ 
peared  happily  diminished.  All  disbursements  were 
henceforth  to  be  made  from  the  Washington  head¬ 
quarters. 

The  entire  work  of  the  preceding  four  years  was 
summarized  by  me  October  20,  1869,  to  wit : 

One  year  ago  there  were  on  duty  in  this  Bureau 
one  hundred  and  forty-one  (141)  commissioned  offi¬ 
cers,  four  hundred  and  twelve  (412)  civilian  agents, 
and  three  hundred  and  forty-eight  (348)  clerks.  At 

361 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

present  there  are  fifteen  (15)  commissioned  officers, 
seventy-one  (71)  civilian  agents,  and  seventy-two  (72) 
clerks.  A  year  ago  clothing  and  rations  were  distrib¬ 
uted  to  the  destitute,  costing  ninety-three  thousand 
seven  hundred  and  five  dollars  (93,705)  per  month.  At 
present  no  such  supplies  are  issued,  except  to  the  sick 
in  hospitals.  At  the  date  of  the  last  annual  report 
there  were  in  operation  twenty-one  (21)  hospitals  and 
forty-eight  (48)  dispensaries,  with  five  thousand  three 
hundred  and  ninety-nine  (5,399)  patients  and  eighty- 
five  (85)  surgeons.  Now  there  are  two  (2)  hospitals, 
no  dispensaries,  with  five  hundred  and  forty-one  (541) 
patients  and  five  (5)  surgeons.  During  the  last  year 
transportation  was  furnished  to  six  thousand  four 
hundred  and  eighty-one  (6,481)  persons,  and  four 
thousand  eight  hundred  and  fifteen  (4,815)  packages 
of  stores,  at  a  cost  of  twenty-four  thousand  eight  hun¬ 
dred  and  forty  dollars  ($24,840)  per  month.  Now  no 
transportation  orders  are  issued,  and  the  only  expen¬ 
diture  for  this  service  is  for  mileage  or  actual  expenses 
of  officers  traveling  under  orders.  .  .  . 

Previous  to  any  Bureau  relief  and  early  in  the 
progress  of  the  war,  it  was  seen  by  intelligent  military 
officers,  and  by  statesmen  in  Washington,  that  the  con¬ 
dition  of  the  colored  people  set  free  by  the  army  de¬ 
manded  earnest  attention  and  wise  consideration.  .  .  . 

The  law  establishing  a  Bureau  committed  to  it  the 
control  of  all  subjects  relating  to  refugees  and  freed- 
men  under  such  regulations  as  might  be  prescribed  by 
the  head  of  the  Bureau  and  approved  by  the  President. 
This  almost  unlimited  authority  gave  me  great  scope 
and  liberty  of  action,  but  at  the  same  time  it  imposed 
upon  me  very  perplexing  and  responsible  duties.  Leg¬ 
islative,  judicial,  and  executive  powers  were  combined 

362 


Famine  Reliefs 


in  my  commission,  reaching  all  the  interests  of  fonr 
millions  of  people,  scattered  over  a  vast  territory,  liv¬ 
ing  in  the  midst  of  another  people  claiming  to  be  supe¬ 
rior,  and  known  to  be  not  altogether  friendly.  It  was 
impossible  at  the  outset  to  do  more  than  lay  down  gen¬ 
eral  principles  to  guide  the  officers  assigned  as  assist¬ 
ant  commissioners  in  the  several  States.  These  officers 
were  men  of  well-tried  character,  and  to  them  was  com¬ 
mitted  to  a  considerable  extent  the  task  of  working  out 
the  details  of  organization  in  accordance  with  the  dif¬ 
ferent  conditions  of  affairs  in  their  respective  districts. 
No  one  minute  system  of  rules  could  have  been  rigidly 
adhered  to  and  applied  in  every  part  of  the  Southern 
country.  I  therefore  set  forth  as  clearly  as  I  could 
the  objects  to  be  attained  and  the  powers  which  the 
Bureau  could  legally  exercise,  and  left  it  to  my  subor¬ 
dinates  to  devise  suitable  measures  for  effecting  these 
objects. 

The  first  information  received  from  these  officers 
presented  a  sad  picture  of  want  and  misery.  Though 
large  sums  of  money  had  been  contributed  by  generous 
Northern  people ;  though  many  noble-hearted  men  and 
women,  with  the  spirit  of  true  Christian  missionaries, 
had  engaged  zealously  in  the  work  of  relief  and  in¬ 
struction;  though  the  heads  of  departments  in  Wash¬ 
ington  and  military  commanders  in  the  field  had  done 
all  in  their  power,  yet  the  great  mass  of  the  colored 
people,  just  freed  from  slavery,  had  not  been  reached. 
In  every  State  many  thousands  were  found  without 
employment,  without  homes,  without  means  of  subsist¬ 
ence,  crowding  into  towns  and  about  military  posts, 
where  they  hoped  to  find  protection  and  supplies.  The 
sudden  collapse  of  the  rebellion,  making  emancipation 
an  actual,  universal  fact,  was  like  an  earthquake.  It 

363 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

shook  and  shattered  the  whole  previously  existing  so¬ 
cial  system.  It  broke  up  the  old  industries  and  threat¬ 
ened  a  reign  of  anarchy.  Even  well-disposed  and 
humane  land  owners  were  at  a  loss  what  to  do,  or  how 
to  begin  the  work  of  reorganizing  society,  and  of  re¬ 
building  their  ruined  fortunes.  Very  few  had  any 
knowledge  of  free  labor,  or  any  hope  that  their  former 
slaves  would  serve  them  faithfully  for  wages.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  freed  people  were  in  a  state  of  great 
excitement  and  uncertainty.  They  could  hardly  be¬ 
lieve  that  the  liberty  proclaimed  was  real  and  perma¬ 
nent.  Many  were  afraid  to  remain  on  the  same  soil 
that  they  had  tilled  as  slaves,  lest  by  some  trick  they 
might  find  themselves  again  in  bondage.  Others  sup¬ 
posed  that  the  Government  would  either  take  the 
entire  supervision  of  their  labor  and  support,  or  divide 
among  them  the  lands  of  conquered  owners,  and  fur¬ 
nish  them  with  all  that  might  be  necessary  to  begin  life 
as  independent  farmers. 

In  such  an  unsettled  state  of  affairs  it  was  no  ordi¬ 
nary  task  we  undertook,  to  inspire  hostile  races  with 
mutual  confidence,  to  supply  the  immediate  wants  of 
the  sick  and  starving,  to  restore  social  order,  and  to 
set  in  motion  all  the  wheels  of  industry.  .  .  . 

Surely  our  Government  exercised  a  large  benevo¬ 
lence.  We  have  had  under  our  care  no  less  than  five 
hundred  and  eighty-four  thousand  one  hundred  and 
seventy-eight  (584,178)  sick  and  infirm  persons,  for 
whom  no  provision  was  made  by  local  authorities,  and 
who  had  no  means  themselves  of  procuring  the  attend¬ 
ance  and  comforts  necessary  to  health  and  life.  It  has 
not  been  possible  to  provide  for  the  proper  treatment 
of  the  insane.  For  some  of  this  unfortunate  class  ad¬ 
mission  has  been  gained  by  earnest  correspondence  to 

364 


Famine  Reliefs 


State  asylums,  but  the  majority  have  been  of  necessity 
retained  in  the  Bureau  hospitals,  and  all  that  could  be 
done  for  them  was  to  supply  them  with  food  and  cloth¬ 
ing  and  prevent  them  from  doing  injury. 

For  more  than  a  year  our  principal  aim  has  been 
to  relieve  the  general  Government  by  transferring  to 
the  civil  authorities  all  these  dependent  classes  for 
future  care  and  treatment.  To  this  end  medicines  and 
hospital  stores  have  been  furnished  as  an  outfit  where 
State  or  municipal  governments  have  consented  to  as¬ 
sume  charge  of  destitute  sick  and  disabled  freedmen 
within  their  own  borders.  By  means  of  this  aid,  and 
by  patient  and  persistent  effort  on  the  part  of  my  offi¬ 
cers,  the  hospitals,  at  one  time  numbering  fifty-six 
(56),  have  been  reduced  to  two  (2),  and  one  (1)  of 
these  is  about  to  be  closed. 

In  addition  to  the  sick,  many  others  were  destitute 
and  required  aid.  To  relieve  this  destitution  without 
encouraging  pauperism  and  idleness  was  at  all  times 
a  difficult  problem.  .  .  . 

The  wonder  is  not  that  so  many,  but  that  so  few, 
have  needed  help;  that  of  the  four  millions  of  people 
thrown  suddenly  upon  their  own  resources  only  one  in 
about  two  hundred  has  been  an  object  of  public  char¬ 
ity;  and  nearly  all  who  have  received  aid  have  been 
persons  who,  by  reason  of  age,  infirmity,  or  disease, 
would  be  objects  of  charity  in  any  State  and  at  any 
time. 

It  would  have  been  impossible  to  reach  such  satis¬ 
factory  results,  and  reduce  the  issue  of  supplies  to  so 
small  proportions  had  not  employment  been  found  for 
a  great  multitude  of  able-bodied  men  and  women,  who, 
when  first  set  free,  knew  not  where  to  look  for  re¬ 
munerative  labor.  .  .  . 


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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

They  were  uniformly  assisted  by  us  in  finding 
good  places  and  in  making  reasonable  bargains.  To 
secure  fairness  and  inspire  confidence  on  both  sides, 
the  system  of  written  contracts  was  adopted.  No  com¬ 
pulsion  was  used,  but  all  were  advised  to  enter  into 
written  agreements  and  submit  them  to  an  officer  of 
the  Bureau  for  approval.  The  nature  and  obligations 
of  these  contracts  were  carefully  explained  to  the 
freedmen,  and  a  copy  filed  in  the  office  of  the  agent 
approving  it;  this  was  for  their  use  in  case  any  diffi¬ 
culty  arose  between  them  and  their  employers.  The 
labor  imposed  upon  my  officers  and  agents  by  this  sys¬ 
tem  was  very  great,  as  is  evinced  by  the  fact  that  in  a 
single  State  not  less  than  fifty  thousand  (50,000)  such 
contracts  were  drawn  in  duplicate  and  filled  up  with 
the  names  of  all  the  parties.  But  the  result  has  been 
highly  satisfactory.  To  the  freedman,  the  Bureau 
office  in  this  way  became  a  school  in  which  he  learned 
the  first  practical  business  lessons  of  life,  and  from 
year  to  year  he  has  made  rapid  progress  in  this  im¬ 
portant  branch  of  education.  Nor  can  it  be  doubted 
that  much  litigation  and  strife  were  prevented.  It 
could  not  be  expected  that  such  a  vast  and  complicated 
machinery  would  work  without  friction.  The  interests 
of  capital  and  labor  very  often  clash  in  all  communi¬ 
ties.  The  South  has  not  been  entirely  exempt  from 
troubles  of  this  kind.  Some  employers  have  been  dis¬ 
honest  and  have  attempted  to  defraud  the  freedmen 
of  just  wages.  Some  laborers  have  been  unfaithful 
and  unreasonable  in  their  demands.  But  in  the  great 
majority  of  cases  brought  before  us  for  settlement,  the 
trouble  and  misunderstanding  have  arisen  from  vague 
verbal  bargains  and  a  want  of  specific  written  con¬ 
tracts.  ...  , 


366 


Famine  Reliefs 


In  spite  of  all  disorders  that  have  prevailed  and 
the  misfortunes  that  have  fallen  upon  many  parts  of 
the  South,  a  good  degree  of  prosperity  and  success  has 
already  been  attained.  To  the  oft-repeated  slander 
that  the  negroes  will  not  work,  and  are  incapable  of 
taking  care  of  themselves,  it  is  a  sufficient  answer  that 
their  voluntary  labor  has  produced  nearly  all  the  food 
that  has  supported  the  whole  people,  besides  a  large 
amount  of  rice,  sugar,  and  tobacco  for  export,  and  two 
millions  of  bales  of  cotton  each  year,  on  which  was 
paid  into  the  United  States  Treasury  during  the  years 
1866  and  1867  a  tax  of  more  than  forty  millions  of  dol¬ 
lars  ($40,000,000).  It  is  not  claimed  that  this  result  is 
wholly  due  to  the  care  and  oversight  of  this  Bureau, 
but  it  is  safe  to  say,  as  it  lias  been  said  repeatedly  by 
intelligent  Southern  men,  that  without  the  Bureau  or 
some  similar  agency,  the  material  interests  of  the 
country  would  have  greatly  suffered,  and  the  Govern¬ 
ment  would  have  lost  a  far  greater  amount  than  has 
been  expended  in  its  maintenance.  .  .  . 

Of  the  nearly  eight  hundred  thousand  (800,000) 
acres  of  farming  land  and  about  five  thousand  (5,000) 
pieces  of  town  property  transferred  to  this  Bureau  by 
military  and  Treasury  officers,  or  taken  up  by  my  as¬ 
sistant  commissioners,  enough  was  leased  to  produce 
a  revenue  of  nearly  four  hundred  thousand  ($400,000) 
dollars.  Some  farms  were  set  apart  in  each  State 
as  homes  for  the  destitute  and  helpless,  and  a  portion 
was  cultivated  by  freedmen  prior  to  its  restoration.  .  .  . 

In  a  few  instances  freedmen  have  combined  their 
means  and  purchased  farms  already  under  cultivation. 
They  have  everywhere  manifested  a  great  desire  to 
become  land  owners,  a  desire  in  the  highest  degree 
laudable  and  hopeful  for  their  future  civilization. 

367 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

Next  to  a  proper  religious  and  intellectual  training, 
tlie  two  things  needful  to  the  freedmen  are  land  and  a 
home.  Without  these,  high  degrees  of  civilization  and 
moral  culture  are  scarcely  possible.  So  long  as  he  is 
merely  one  of  a  herd  working  for  hire  and  living  on 
another’s  domain,  he  must  be  dependent  and  destitute 
of  manly  individuality  and  self-reliance.  But  the  most 
urgent  want  of  the  freedmen  was  a  practical  educa¬ 
tion;  and  from  the  first  I  have  devoted  more  attention 
to  this  than  to  any  other  branch  of  my  work.  .  .  . 

Though  no  appropriations  had  in  the  outset  been 
granted  by  Congress  for  this  purpose,  by  using  the 
funds  derived  from  rents  of  “  abandoned  property,” 
by  fitting  up  for  schoolhouses  such  Government  build¬ 
ings  as  were  no  longer  needed  for  military  purposes, 
by  giving  transportation  for  teachers,  books,  and 
school  furniture,  and  by  granting  subsistence,  I  gave 
material  aid  to  all  engaged  in  the  educational  work. 
With  the  aim  to  harmonize  the  numerous  independent 
school  agencies  in  the  field,  and  to  assist  all  impartially, 
I  appointed  a  superintendent  of  schools  for  each  State, 
who  should  collect  information,  encourage  the  organi¬ 
zation  of  new  schools,  find  homes  for  teachers,  and 
supervise  the  whole  work.  The  law  of  July  16,  1866, 
sanctioned  all  that  had  been  previously  done,  and  en¬ 
larged  my  powers.  It  authorized  the  lease  of  build¬ 
ings  for  the  purposes  of  education,  and  the  sale  of 
“  Confederate  States  ”  property  to  create  an  educa¬ 
tional  fund.  Appropriations  by  Congress  were  also 
made  for  the  “  rental,  construction,  and  repairs  of 
school  buildings.”  This  enabled  me  to  give  a  more 
permanent  character  to  the  schools,  and  to  encour¬ 
age  the  establishment  of  institutions  of  a  higher 
grade.  .  .  . 


368 


Famine  Reliefs 


In  1869,  official  reports  gave  two  thousand  one  hun¬ 
dred  and  eighteen  (2,118)  schools,  two  thousand  four 
hundred  and  fifty-five  (2,455)  teachers,  and  one  hun¬ 
dred  and  fourteen  thousand  five  hundred  and  twenty- 
two  (114,522)  pupils.  These  figures  do  not  include 
many  evening  and  private  schools  which  have  not  been 
reported.  It  is  believed  that  not  less  than  two  hundred 
and  fifty  thousand  (250,000)  colored  adults  and  chil¬ 
dren  have  received  considerable  instruction  during 
the  past  year.  .  .  . 

Since  the  freedmen  have  been  invested  with  all  the 
rights  and  privileges  of  free  men,  and  already  exert 
a  powerful  political  influence,  it  is  admitted  by  all  the 
intelligent  and  fair-minded  people  that  they  must  be 
educated,  or  they  will  become  the  tools  of  demagogues, 
and  a  power  for  evil  rather  than  good.  This  necessity 
has  already  led  to  the  organization  of  a  system  of  free 
schools  in  some  of  the  reconstructed  States.  Until  this 
is  done  in  every  State,  and  such  public  schools  are  in 
practical  operation,  the  safety  of  the  country,  and  es¬ 
pecially  of  the  South,  will  demand  the  continuance,  by 
some  agency,  of  the  additional  work  now  carried  on. 
Not  only  this,  but  means  should  be  provided  for 
greatly  extending  these  operations  to  meet  the  wants 
of  the  whole  people.  Just  at  present  not  more  than 
one  tenth  of  the  children  of  the  freedmen  are  attend¬ 
ing  school.  Their  parents  are  not  yet  able  to  defray 
the  expenses  of  education.  They  are  already  doing 
something,  probably  more  in  proportion  to  their 
means,  than  any  other  class.  During  the  last  year  it 
is  estimated  that  they  have  raised  and  expended  for 
the  construction  of  schoolhouses  and  the  support  of 
teachers  not  less  than  two  hundred  thousand  dollars 
($200,000).  They  have  shown  a  willingness  to  help, 

369 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

and  as  they  prosper  and  acquire  property,  they  will 
assume  a  larger  share  of  the  burden,  either  by  volun¬ 
tary  contributions  or  by  the  payment  of  taxes  for  the 
support  of  schools. 

The  poverty  of  the  freed  people  has  been  in  some 
slight  degree  relieved  by  the  payment  of  bounties  and 
other  moneys  due  from  the  Government  to  soldiers, 
sailors,  and  marines.  These  payments  have  been  made 
through  us  in  accordance  with  law. 

So  far  as  I  have  had  authority  and  power  I  have 
endeavored  to  protect  the  freedmen  from  all  kinds  of 
abuse  and  injustice  to  which  they  were  exposed  in  a 
region  for  a  time  destitute  of  civil  government,  and 
among  a  people  bitterly  hostile  to  their  emancipa¬ 
tion.  .  .  . 

In  all  important  cases  where  the  civil  courts  ex¬ 
isted  they  were  first  resorted  to ;  but  when  such  courts 
would  not  admit  the  testimony  of  negroes  nor  treat 
them  as  equals  before  the  law  with  whites,  appeal  was 
made  to  military  tribunals  or  under  the  Civil  Rights 
bill  to  the  United  States  courts.  .  .  . 

One  assistant  commissioner  reports  three  thousand 
four  hundred  and  five  (3,405)  cases  adjudicated  in  a 
single  quarter,  which,  taken  as  a  fair  exponent  of  the 
business,  gives  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  (100,- 
000)  complaints  heard  and  acted  upon  by  Bureau  offi¬ 
cers  in  a  single  year.  The  reports  of  murders,  as¬ 
saults,  and  outrages  of  every  description  were  so  nu¬ 
merous,  and  so  full  of  horrible  details,  that  at  times 
one  was  inclined  to  believe  the  whole  white  population 
engaged  in  a  war  of  extermination  against  the  blacks. 
But  careful  investigation  has  proved  that  the  worst 
outrages  were  generally  committed  by  small  bands  of 
lawless  men,  organized  under  various  names,  whose 

370 


Famine  Reliefs 


principal  objects  were  robbery  and  plunder.  There 
was  no  civil  government  with  strength  enough  to  ar¬ 
rest  them,  and  they  overawed  and  held  in  terror 
the  more  quiet  citizens  who  were  disposed  to  treat  the 
freedmen  with  fairness  and  humanity.  But  for  the 
presence  of  Bureau  officers,  sustained  by  a  military 
force,  there  would  have  been  no  one  to  whom  these 
victims  of  cruelty  and  wrong  could  have  appealed  for 
defense.  And  the  evils  remedied  have  probably  been 
far  less  than  the  evils  prevented.  No  one  can  tell  what 
scenes  of  violence  and  strife  and  insurrection  the 
whole  South  might  have  presented  without  the  pres¬ 
ence  of  this  agency  of  the  Government  to  preserve 
order  and  to  enforce  justice.  Several  officers  and 
agents  have  been  severely  wounded,  and  some  have 
lost  their  lives  in  this  service.  Fallen  in  the  faithful 
discharge  of  duty,  in  brave  defense  of  right,  in  heroic 
protection  of  the  weak  and  poor,  their  names  deserve 
a  place  on  their  country’s  “  Roll  of  Fame.” 

Notice  the  appropriations  by  Congress: 


For  the  year  ending  July  1,  1867 .  $6,940,450.00 

For  the  year  ending  July  1,  1868 .  3,836,300.00 

For  relief  of  destitute  citizens  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  .  40,000.00 

For  relief  of  destitute  freedmen  in  the  same .  15,000.00 

For  expenses  of  paying  bounties  in  1869 .  214,000.00 

For  expenses  for  famine  in  Southern  States  and  transpor¬ 
tation  .  1 ,865 ,645 . 40 

For  the  support  of  hospitals .  50,000.00 


Making  a  total,  received  from  all  sources,  of . $12,961,395.40 


Our  expenditures  from  the  beginning  (including  as¬ 
sumed  accounts  of  the  “  Department  of  Negro  Af¬ 
fairs”),  from  January  1,  1865,  to  August  31,  1869, 
have  been  eleven  million  two  hundred  and  forty-nine 
thousand  and  twenty-eight  dollars  and  ten  cents  ($11,- 
249,028.10).  In  addition  to  this  cash  expenditure  the 
subsistence,  medical  supplies,  quartermaster  stores, 

371 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

issued  to  refugees  and  freedmen  prior  to  July  1,  1866, 
were  furnished  by  the  commissary,  medical,  and  quar¬ 
termaster’s  department,  and  accounted  for  in  the  cur¬ 
rent  expenses  of  those  departments;  they  were  not 
charged  to  nor  paid  for  by  my  officers.  They  amounted 
to  two  million  three  hundred  and  thirty  thousand  seven 
hundred  and  eighty-eight  dollars  and  seventy-two 
cents  ($2,330,788.72)  in  original  cost;  but  a  large  por¬ 
tion  of  these  stores  being  damaged  and  condemned  as 
unfit  for  issue  to  troops,  their  real  value  to  the  Govern¬ 
ment  was  probably  less  than  one  million  of  dollars 
($1,000,000).  Adding  their  original  cost  to  the  amount 
expended  from  appropriations  and  other  sources,  the 
total  expenses  of  our  Government  for  refugees  and 
freedmen  to  August  31,  1869,  have  been  thirteen  mil¬ 
lions  five  hundred  and  seventy-nine  thousand  eight 
hundred  and  sixteen  dollars  and  eighty- two  cents 
($13,579,816.82).  And  deducting  fifty  thousand  dol¬ 
lars  ($50,000)  which  Congress  transferred  to  the  Ag¬ 
ricultural  Department,  and  five  hundred  thousand  dol¬ 
lars  ($500,000)  set  apart  as  a  special  relief  fund  for  all 
classes  of  destitute  people  in  the  Southern  States,  the 
real  cost  has  been  thirteen  millions  twenty-nine  thou¬ 
sand  eight  hundred  and  sixteen  dollars  and  eighty-two 
cents  ($13,029,816.82).  .  .  . 

It  was  obvious  that  the  payment  of  bounties  and 
other  moneys  due  colored  soldiers  must  be  continued 
by  some  agency  until  all  should  have  a  reasonable  time 
to  present  their  claims.  National  honor  forbade  that 
the  task  should  be  left  incomplete,  and  an  Act  of  Con¬ 
gress  was  required  to  transfer  this  important  work 
to  some  other  department  when  our  divisions  should  be 
entirely  closed.  I  so  recommended. 

I  added:  the  Educational  Division  should  not  only 

372 


Famine  Reliefs 


be  continued  but  greatly  extended.  If  the  State  govern¬ 
ments  are  not  prepared  nor  willing  to  provide  for  the 
education  of  all  classes  (as  I  hope  they  will  soon  do), 
I  recommend  that  the  general  Government  take  the 
matter  in  band.  “  The  safety  of  the  Republic  is  the 
supreme  law.”  There  can  be  no  safety  nor  permanent 
peace  where  ignorance  reigns.  The  law  of  self-preser¬ 
vation  will  justify  the  national  legislature  in  establish¬ 
ing  through  the  Bureau  of  Education,  or  some  other 
agency,  a  general  system  of  free  schools,  and  furnish 
to  all  children  of  a  suitable  age  such  instruction 
in  the  rudiments  of  learning  as  may  be  necessary  to 
fit  them  to  discharge  intelligently  the  duties  of  free 
American  citizens. 

The  foregoing  comments  and  summary  upon  what 
was  undertaken  and  accomplished,  which  were  made 
forty  years  ago,  are,  I  believe,  of  special  interest  to¬ 
day.  Problems  touching  labor  are  always  recurring. 


373 


CHAPTER  LVII 


THE  KU-KLUX  KLAN 

\  FTER  Congress  had  overthrown  President  John- 
son’s  plan  and  had  completed  the  formal  recon¬ 
struction  of  the  insurrectionary  States  according  to  its 
own  views,  the  political  disabilities  of  the  late  Confed¬ 
erates  deprived  them  of  suffrage  and  placed  the  politi¬ 
cal  control  of  these  States  in  a  new  party,  composed  of 
Southern  Union  men,  Northern  men  who  at  the  end  of 
the  war  settled  in  the  South,  and  the  negroes. 

Politicians  of  the  Republican  Party  hoped  through 
this  combination  to  keep  the  Southern  States  Repub¬ 
lican  on  national  issues  and  secure  the  rights  of  com¬ 
plete  citizenship  to  the  new  voters. 

The  negroes  were  generally  very  ignorant  and  not 
wisely  led,  and  even  if  they  had  been  the  wisest  of 
rulers  the  opposition  of  the  whites  to  being  ruled  by 
their  late  slaves  would  have  been  naturally  very  fierce. 

The  opposition,  as  yet  powerless  at  the  polls,  was 
greatly  strengthened  by  the  course,  hostile  to  Con¬ 
gress,  which  President  Johnson  had  pursued,  and  early 
in  1868  began  to  show  itself  in  the  operations  here  and 
there  of  certain  secret  organizations.  The  primary 
object  of  these  associations  was  undoubtedly  political, 
in  some  places  avowed  to  be  in  opposition  to  the  Union 
Leagues,  that  favored  strong  national  control  in  the 
South,  leagues  which  not  only  took  form  in  Northern 

374 


The  Ku-Klux  Klan 


cities  but  also  had  prototypes  in  the  South  among  the 
Unionists  and  negroes. 

The  ex-Confederate  General  Forrest  even  claimed 
for  the  former  a  “  benevolent  and  defensive  ”  purpose. 
The  benevolence  was  to  be  mutual  aid;  the  defensive, 
ostensibly  to  prevent  Union  leagues,  composed  mostly 
of  negroes,  from  disturbing  the  peace.  Whatever  the 
origin  of  the  associations,  when  full  grown  they  became 
a  monster  terrible  beyond  question.  The  oath  of  per¬ 
petual  secrecy  with  the  penalty  of  death  attached  to  its 
violation,  of  implicit  obedience  to  a  chief  or  chiefs,  the 
guarding  of  secrets  by  the  obligation  to  slay  a  betrayer, 
and  the  oath  of  every  chief  to  obey  without  hesitation 
the  orders  of  some  “  inner  circle,”  constituted  socie¬ 
ties  which  in  some  parts  of  the  South  came  to  rival 
the  Nihilistic  assassins  of  Russia  or  the  inner  chamber 
of  the  old  Spanish  Inquisition.  From  the  numerous 
cases  of  murder  and  outrage  perpetrated  upon  negroes 
and  those  who  befriended  them  during  the  days  of  re¬ 
construction,  which  were  reported  to  my  officers  and 
were  by  them  recorded  with  the  different  circum¬ 
stances  attending  them,  it  is  now  clear  that  the  main 
object  from  first  to  last  was  somehow  to  regain  and 
maintain  over  the  negro  that  ascendency  which  slavery 
gave,  and  which  was  being  lost  by  emancipation,  edu¬ 
cation,  and  suffrage. 

The  opposition  to  negro  education  made  itself  felt 
everywhere  in  a  combination  not  to  allow  the  freedmen 
any  room  or  building  in  which  a  school  might  be 
taught.  In  1865,  1866,  and  1867  mobs  of  the  baser 
classes  at  intervals  and  in  all  parts  of  the  South  occa¬ 
sionally  burned  school  buildings  and  churches  used  as 
schools,  flogged  teachers  or  drove  them  away,  and  in 
a  number  of  instances  murdered  them.  But  the  better 

375 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

portion  of  the  communities  had  not  been  engaged  in 
these  acts,  and  there  was  no  evidence  that  respectable 
Confederate  soldiers  were  involved  in  these  enter¬ 
prises. 

Our  work  of  establishing  schools  went  steadily  on. 
Early  in  1868,  however,  was  the  first  appearance  in  my 
Bureau  school  reports  of  an  offensive  secret  organiza¬ 
tion.  It  was  from  Charlestown,  W.  Va.  Our  workers 
received  a  note  from  the  “  Ku-Ivlux  Klan.”  Not  a 
white  family  there  after  that  could  be  found  willing 
to  board  the  excellent  lady  teachers.  At  Frostburg  a 
male  teacher  was  threatened  with  violence,  the  Klan 
having  sent  him  notes,  ordering  him  to  depart.  Loyal 
West  Virginians,  however,  stood  by  him  and  he  did 
not  go.  In  Maryland,  also,  one  teacher  was  warned 
and  forced  to  leave.  The  Klan  signed  their  rough 
document  which  was  placed  in  his  hand,  “  Ku-Klux 
Klan.”  The  face  of  the  envelope  was  covered  with 
scrawls ;  among  these  were  the  words :  “  Death ! 
Death !  ”  By  a  simjlar  method  a  teacher  at  Hawkins- 
ville,  Ga.  (a  colored  man), was  dealt  with  by  menace  and 
afterwards  seriously  wounded.  The  Georgia  super¬ 
intendent  wrote  that  for  the  last  three  months,  April, 
May,  and  June,  1868,  there  had  been  more  bitterness 
exhibited  toward  all  men  engaged  in  the  work  of 
education  than  ever  before;  and  there  were  few  but 
had  received  threats,  both  anonymous  and  open. 
Several  freedmen  had  abandoned  their  fields  from 
fear. 

The  cry  from  Alabama  was  even  more  alarming. 
People  from  a  distance  could  not  comprehend  the  feel¬ 
ing;  schoolhouses  were  burned,  and  those  left  stand¬ 
ing  were  in  danger;  teachers  were  hated  and  mal¬ 
treated,  two  being  driven  from  their  work.  “  The 

376 


The  Ku-Klux  Klan 

truth  is,”  they  cried,  “  we  are  in  the  midst  of  a  reign 
of  terror.” 

But  Louisiana  exceeded;  Miss  Jordan’s  school  at 
Gretna  was  entered  by  ruffians ;  the  walls  of  her  room 
were  covered  with  obscene  pictures  and  language,  and 
threats  against  the  teacher  posted;  she  was  insulted 
on  the  ferry  and  in  the  streets,  and  even  annoyed  in 
such  a  small  way  as  to  be  required  to  pay  twice  as 
much  ferriage  as  the  teachers  in  the  white  schools.  In 
Markville,  the  Ku-Klux  Klan  made  more  open  demon¬ 
strations,  but  always  by  night.  They  posted  their 
documents  around  the  town,  so  terrifying  the  colored 
people  that  they  did  not  dare  leave  their  homes  after 
dark.  The  night  schools  had  to  be  closed.  At  Mary 
and  Sabine  parish ;  at  Cherryville  and  Rapides  parish ; 
at  Washington  and  Opelousas;  at  St.  Landry  parish, 
and  elsewhere  in  a  similar  way  by  visitations  and 
threats  the  schools  were  shut  up  and  the  teachers 
driven  off. 

In  Texas,  both  at  Georgetown  and  Circleville,  the 
schools  were  similarly  closed  out;  at  the  latter  place 
the  school  edifice  was  burned  to  the  ground. 

Mrs.  Baldwin,  the  teacher  at  Bowling  Green,  Ky., 
was  a  Christian  lady  of  agreeable  manners  and  un¬ 
usual  culture,  but  not  one  of  the  twenty-seven  loyal 
families  of  the  place  dared  incur  the  odium  of  giving 
her  a  home.  The  Regulators  had  made  themselves  felt ; 
men,  professing  to  be  gentlemen,  insulted  her  upon  the 
streets.  Vile  books  and  pictures  were  sent  to  her  by 
mail;  and,  as  a  last  resort,  she  was  threatened  with 
assassination  if  she  was  found  in  the  city  at  the  expi¬ 
ration  of  five  days.  Many  other  schools  had  to  be 
maintained  under  military  guard ;  five  school  buildings 
in  Kentucky  were  burned  about  that  time. 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

Of  course  such  conduct,  bad  as  it  seemed  for  the 
community,  could  not  properly  be  charged  to  any  of 
the  people  beyond  those  who  were  guilty  of  the  bar¬ 
barous  acts,  or  those  who,  in  their  blindness  of  preju¬ 
dice,  sustained  them.  It  became  evident  in  studying 
the  letters  and  communications  which  reached  me,  usu¬ 
ally  cautiously  written,  so  as  not  to  anger  the  whites 
around  them  if  they  should  happen  to  be  published, 
that  in  the  early  summer  of  1868,  the  former  irregular 
and  local  hostility  to  freedmen’s  schools  had  taken  on 
a  new  strength.  It  involved  in  its  meshes  Unionists 
and  well-to-do  industrious  negroes,  as  well  as  teachers 
and  scholars.  Further  examples  will  illustrate  the 
procedure:  On  May  16th,  L.  S.  Frost,  a  white  teacher 
in  Tennessee,  was  taken  at  night  from  his  room  by  a 
mob  of  disguised  young  men  and  carried  to  a  field 
near  by,  men  choking  and  beating  him  all  the  way ;  they 
were  flourishing  their  pistols  over  his  head,  and  threat¬ 
ening  to  kill  him  instantly  if  he  did  not  cease  resist¬ 
ing.  They  made  him  promise  to  leave  town  the  next 
morning.  They  then  blackened  his  face  and  portions 
of  his  body  with  a  composition  of  spirits  of  turpentine, 
lampblack,  and  tar,  and  released  him.  About  a  dozen 
persons  were  engaged  in  the  outrage,  some  of  whom 
were  recognized  by  Mr.  Frost. 

John  Dunlap,  a  teacher  educated  in  Ohio,  was  in 
July,  1868,  in  charge  of  a  colored  school  at  Shelbyville, 
Tenn.  On  Independence  Day,  about  ten  o’clock  at 
night,  a  body  of  Ku-Klux,  some  fifty  strong,  masked, 
armed  with  pistols  and  bearing  an  emblem  resembling 
the  bleeding  heart  of  a  man,  were  paraded  in  front  of 
his  house.  When  he  presented  himself,  they  gave  him 
commands  which  he  resisted.  They  fired  through  his 
window,  made  him  surrender  his  pistol,  caused  him  to 

378 


The  Ku-Klux  Klan 


mount,  and  escorted  him  to  the  public  square.  Then 
they  seized  and  secured  a  prominent  colored  man, 
James  Franklin.  Proceeding  with  the  regularity  of 
soldiers,  a  captain  commanding,  they  marched  their 
victims  across  the  Duck  River,  where,  dismounting, 
with  something  like  a  leathern  thong  or  strap  they  first 
flogged  Franklin,  each  man  giving  him  five  blows. 
After  that,  taking  Dunlap  to  another  place,  with  the 
same  parade,  they  performed  the  same  operation, 
badly  lacerating  his  body.  After  directing  him  to 
leave  the  city  the  next  day,  they  released  him.  Dunlap 
not  at  once  complying  with  their  demand,  they  served 
upon  him  a  formal  notice,  sent  in  the  form  of  an  un¬ 
stamped  letter  through  the  post  office,  ordering  him 
to  leave  by  July  15th,  or  he  would  be  burned  to  death. 
Dunlap  thereupon  went  to  Nashville  and  remained  two 
months.  Then  he  came  hack.  He  was  visited  again 
after  his  return,  but  was  now  prepared  with  a  guard. 
While  the  Ku-Klux  were  hallooing  that  they  “  wanted 
Dunlap  and  fried  meat  ”  and  were  approaching  his 
residence,  the  guard  fired  upon  them.  The  band  re¬ 
treated  and  did  not  appear  in  Shelbyville  again. 

A  school  building  was  burned  at  Carthage,  Tenn., 
by  incendiaries;  and  at  Somerville,  Saulsbury,  Poca¬ 
hontas,  and  in  numerous  other  country  places  the 
schools  were  completely  broken  up  by  insults  and 
shameful  outrages  perpetrated  upon  the  teachers. 

The  outcropping  of  cruelties  in  portions  of  Louisi¬ 
ana  showed  by  the  persons  who  were  chosen  as  vic¬ 
tims  that  the  effort  of  the  secret  organization  was  par¬ 
ticularly  political.  On  July  28,  1868,  William  Cooper, 
a  white  Unionist,  came  to  our  agent  in  the  parish  of 
Franklin.  He  was  severely  wounded,  having  been  shot 
in  his  own  house  near  Girard  Station;  a  freedman 

379 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

named  Prince  was  killed  in  the  same  parish,  and  all 
the  teachers  were  so  terrified  by  such  demonstrations 
as  to  stop  teaching. 

In  the  preceding  April  a  good  teacher,  Frank  Sin¬ 
clair,  had  been  slain  in  Ouachita,  and  other  helpers 
there  were  so  put  in  jeopardy  of  their  lives  that  they 
could  only  teach  secretly  in  the  cabins. 

At  many  points  in  the  State  were  these  “  bands  of 
desperadoes  formed  in  secret  organization,  styling 
themselves  the  Ku-Klux  Klan.”  They  shot  and  hung 
colored  men.  Their  lifeless  bodies  were  found,  but  the 
secrets  were  so  well  kept  that  no  guilty  parties  could 
be  discovered.  In  some  places  negroes  were  taken  out 
and  whipped  (as  a  rule  by  night)  and  there  was  no 
clew  to  the  perpetrators.  Even  United  States  agents 
dared  not  hold  a  public  meeting  in  that  region — a 
gathering  at  night  of  negroes  at  any  place  would  be 
regarded  with  suspicion  by  the  whites  and  result  in 
outrage  and  suffering  to  the  blacks. 

The  aspect  of  society  in  Arkansas  in  the  summer 
and  fall  of  1868  presented  similar  combined  secret 
planning  and  movement.  Lawlessness,  rowdyism,  and 
depredations  in  some  parts  of  the  State  for  a  while 
ran  riot.  Union  men  were  driven  from  their  homes 
and  freedmen  subjected  to  the  grossest  maltreatment. 
In  Crittenden  county,  Mr.  E.  G.  Barker,  our  Bureau 
agent,  was  shot  and  severely  wounded,  August  12, 
1868.  An  attempt  to  assassinate  him  at  Hamburg, 
Ashley  county,  two  years  before  had  failed  to  end  his 
life,  but  the  wounds  received  had  caused  him  the  loss 
of  an  arm. 

The  secret  bodies  had  different  names  in  different 
localities.  They  appeared  as  “  Regulators,”  “  White 
Caps,”  “  Pale  Faces,”  “  Knights  of  the  White  Ca- 

380 


The  Ku-Klux  Klan 


mellia,”  and  “  Ku-Klux  ”  or  “  Ku-Klux  Klan.”  Gen¬ 
eral  Forrest  testified  before  the  Congressional  Com¬ 
mittee  that  his  estimate  of  their  numbers  in  Tennessee 
alone  exceeded  40,000. 

The  latter  part  of  the  year  1868,  before  the  election 
of  General  Grant  for  his  first  term,  these  murderous 
secret  societies  reached  their  greatest  activity.  Even 
the  country  hamlets  in  the  neighborhood  of  Chatta¬ 
nooga,  which  city  always  after  the  war  abounded  in 
Union  men  and  late  Union  soldiers,  were  boldly  visited 
by  this  strange  horde.  They  came  upon  one  commo¬ 
dious  schoolhouse  in  the  country  and  burned  it  to  the 
ground;  but  the  persistent  teacher,  a  colored  youth, 
though  threatened  by  the  Ku-Klux  Klan  with  violence 
and  death  if  he  did  not  yield  to  their  commands,  made 
himself  a  brush  arbor  and  there  continued  his  school 
to  the  end  of  the  term.  Before  the  November  election 
(the  freedmen’s  first  national  suffrage)  the  Ku-Klux, 
armed  and  masked  as  usual,  at  night  paraded  the 
streets  of  several  cities,  and  filled  the  freedmen  with 
terror.  Similar  detachments  boldly  roamed  over  large 
districts  of  country  outside  of  the  cities. 

At  Rock  Spring,  Ky.,  the  Ku-Klux,  estimated 
fifty  strong,  came  at  ten  o’clock  at  night,  seized  the 
teacher,  James  Davis,  a  native  of  the  place,  an  able  and 
respected  colored  man,  and  ordered  him  to  leave  the 
country.  His  fine  school  building  was  reduced  to 
ashes. 

On  October  21,  1868,  a  host  of  these  “  Regulators  ” 
set  upon  a  negro  assembly  at  Cadiz,  which  a  Bureau 
messenger,  Mr.  P.  S.  Reeves,  was  visiting  and  address¬ 
ing.  The  Regulators  stoned  the  building  and  dis¬ 
persed  the  negroes.  Some  of  the  rush  shouted  after 
Mr.  Reeves:  “Kill  the  scalawag!”  “Shoot  the  Yan- 

381 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

kee !  ”  This  was  done  while  he  was  finding  his  way  to 
the  hotel.  He  halted  and  faced  them.  They  then 
“  surrounded  him,  thrust  their  pistols  into  his  face, 
beat  him,  kicked  him,”  and  after  abusing  him  for  a 
while  ordered  him  to  run  for  his  life.  This  time,  by 
what  he  called  a  quick  walk,  he  reached  the  hotel.  A 
larger  mob  surrounded  the  public  house  and  could  only 
be  appeased  by  his  promise  to  leave  town  the  next 
morning. 

After  the  election,  for  a  time,  the  excessive  wrath 
abated.  From  my  point  of  observation,  the  two  months 
of  1868  that  followed  the  Presidential  election  and  the 
first  six  in  the  next  year,  1869,  were  quite  free  from 
the  Ku-Klux  raids. 

During  the  last  half  of  1869,  however,  there  was 
a  quickening  of  the  secret  pulse.  In  the  northern  part 
of  Alabama,  along  the  border  between  Alabama  and 
Tennessee,  now  and  then  there  was  “  trouble  between 
the  races.”  “  But,”  said  our  representative,  “  this  is 
attributed  to  incursions  of  Ku-Klux  coming  from  Ten¬ 
nessee  where,  in  remote  localities,  the  organization  is 
kept  up  for  political  effect,  rather  than  for  the  bitter 
strife  of  former  years.”  But  Tennessee  herself  was 
at  this  time  comparatively  clear  of  any  active  opera¬ 
tions  of  the  Ku-Klux  Klan.  From  Kentucky,  however, 
a  teacher  who  had  a  remarkably  good  school  about  ten 
miles  from  Bowling  Green  wrote :  “  The  Ku-Klux  Klan 
came  one  night  and  told  me  if  I  did  not  break  up  my 
school  they  would  kill  me.”  The  teacher  obeyed.  He 
reported  that  the  white  people  said  that  this  action  by 
the  Ku-Klux  was  had  because  “  the  niggers  there  were 
getting  too  smart.” 

North  Carolina,  that  had  made  such  good  progress 
in  every  way  under  our  systematic  work,  began  in 

382 


The  ljui-Klux  Klan 


some  of  its  counties  to  be  infested  during  the  latter 
half  of  1869.  “  There  was  for  a  time  a  suspension  of 
schools  in  a  number  of  districts.”  Our  inspector  wrote 
that  it  was  “  owing  to  the  influence  of  certain  lawless 
bands.”  Teachers  became  frightened,  and,  under  the 
threats  of  violence  printed  on  placards  and  put  upon 
doors  and  fence  posts,  it  was  deemed  best  to  obey 
the  dread-inspiring  foes  that,  many  or  few,  were 
magnified  by  excited  imaginations  into  multitudes. 
The  marauders  went  in  bands,  always  masked,  usually 
in  small  squads,  each  squad  having  from  five  to  ten 
in  number.  One  of  our  best  North  Carolina  workers 
near  the  close  of  this  bitter  year,  1869,  had  in  his  com¬ 
munication  from  his  district,  consisting  of  Rowan,  Ire¬ 
dell,  Davie,  and  Yadkin  counties,  these  sad  words: 
“  Our  situation  is  now  more  painful  than  it  has  ever 
been  since  we  took  up  this  notable  cause  of  the  freed- 
men.  I  mind  my  own  business  as  closely  as  I  can,  but 
know  no  safety  of  life  or  property.” 

South  Carolina  showed  some  eruptions  of  the  same 
nature  as  late  as  December  24,  1869.  A  gentleman  of 
good  standing  was  building  a  large  school  structure  at 
Newberry,  S.  C.,  for  the  education  of  the  children  of 
the  freed  people.  He  was  visited  by  armed  men  and 
driven  from  the  hotel  where  he  was  boarding,  and  a 
young  lady  teacher  at  the  same  place,  sent  by  the 
Methodists  from  Vermont,  was  subjected  to  the  mean¬ 
est  sort  of  insults  and  persecutions. 

Georgia,  too,  in  this  time  of  comparative  quiet,  fur¬ 
nished  some  instances  of  the  action  of  the  secret  bands. 
In  about  half  of  the  State  “  Ku-Klux  Klans,”  armed, 
disguised,  roaming  through  country  districts,  com¬ 
mitted  their  atrocious  outrages.  The  teacher,  R.  H. 
Gladding,  was  by  them  driven  from  Greensboro.  The 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

gentleman  wlio  boarded  him,  because  he  had  harbored 
him,  was  taken  from  his  house  at  night  and  unmerci¬ 
fully  scourged.  Abram  Colby  (colored)  about  this  time 
being  a  member  elect  of  the  legislature,  was  beaten 
nearly  to  death.  At  Maxey’s  Station,  Oglethorpe 
county,  P.  H.  Gillen,  a  white  man,  was  dealt  with  in  the 
same  way  and  forced  to  leave.  My  agent  thus  wit¬ 
nessed  :  “  I  have  also  found  outrages  of  a  similar  char¬ 
acter  committed  in  this  month  (December,  1869)  in  the 
southern  part  of  the  State.  These  murders  and  out¬ 
rages  are  committed  by  organized  gangs,  generally  in 
the  night,  and  the  civil  authorities  seem  to  be  unable 
to  prevent  them.” 

Texas,  at  this  period,  presented  a  better  field.  Order 
had  generally  been  secured,  yet  Major  McCleery,  our 
State  superintendent  of  education,  while  extending  and 
inspecting  his  schools,  had  to  say :  “  Sometimes  we 
were  driven  out  of  places  on  our  mission  becoming 
known.  Frequently  we  had  to  do  our  business  in  se¬ 
cret  and  travel  in  disguise.”  His  clerk  was  twice  aim 
bushed  by  the  Regulators  and  fired  upon,  and  his  mes¬ 
senger  several  times  assaulted  for  serving  “  the 
Yankee.”  Threatening  letters  were  sent,  bricks  were 
thrown  through  the  windows,  dead  cats  were  dropped 
into  cisterns,  and  other  such  petty  annoyances  fre¬ 
quently  took  place  to  worry  him.  Yet  with  the  courage 
and  perseverance  of  a  hero,  he  kept  on,  and  “  planted 
many  flourishing  schools.”  The  pros  and  cons  of 
Texas  society  were  shown  at  Gonzales.  A  Hungarian 
teacher  of  good  ability  and  character  was  set  upon  by 
a  small  night  detachment  of  six  of  these  Regulators, 
well  disguised  and  armed  with  revolvers.  They  beat 
him,  they  took  him  to  the  river  and  immersed  him,  with 
threats  of  drowning.  The  postmaster,  a  truly  brave 

384 


The  Ku-Ivlux  Klan 


Southern  man,  successfully  came  to  his  relief,  and  the 
white  citizens  of  Gonzales  assembled  and  passed  reso¬ 
lutions  against  the  outrage,  and  promised  the  utmost 
aid  and  support  to  the  town  officers  for  the  discovery, 
apprehension,  and  punishment  of  the  offenders.  Such 
affairs,  thus  ending,  became  stepping-stones  to  prog¬ 
ress. 

Tennessee  in  its  middle  and  western  sections  was 
the  leader  in  this  Ku-Klux  business.  The  most  hei¬ 
nous  crimes  occurred  just  before  an  election.  Gradu¬ 
ally  the  friends  of  order  and  good  government  in  those 
very  much  disturbed  sections  came  to  the  front  and 
were  outspoken  in  their  condemnation  of  the  whip¬ 
pings,  lynchings,  and  assassinations,  and  all  such  in¬ 
famous  secret  proceedings;  so  that  even  when  the 
Regulators  were  for  a  time  apparently  very  strong,  re¬ 
action  in  the  best  Southern  circles  had  set  in  against 
them  before  the  close  of  1869. 

During  1870,  there  were  few  localities  which  were 
kept  in  ferment  by  these  unscrupulous  secret  organiza¬ 
tions.  By  procuring  the  support  of  good  citizens  all 
over  the  South  and,  when  necessary,  action  by  the  army 
to  arrest  outlaws,  our  schools  whenever  temporarily 
closed  were  soon  reopened  and  steady  progress  made. 

Colonel  Beecher,  in  his  June  report  from  Alabama, 
spoke  of  bad  feeling  in  a  few  counties.  There  were 
threats  to  burn  school  structures,  but  by  vigilance  the 
dreaded  calamity  was  everywhere  prevented.  But  in 
northwestern  Louisiana  there  was  still  trouble  enough. 
McCleery,  the  superintendent  from  Texas,  and  those 
aiding  him,  had  many  narrow  escapes.  While  travel¬ 
ing  on  duty  through  Winn  parish,  a  band  like  those  so 
often  described  waylaid  him  and  drove  him  to  refuge 
in  a  swamp,  where,  by  staying  all  night  and  making  a 

385 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

twenty-five-mile  detour,  he  managed  to  escape  from 
their  clutches.  The  negroes,  he  said,  never  recovered 
from  the  election  murders  of  1868.  His  accounts,  in 
keeping  with  that  of  a  Louisiana  State  committee, 
showed  that  there  had  been  in  nine  parishes  two  hun¬ 
dred  and  twenty-seven  (227)  freedmen  and  Union 
white  men  (freedmen  mostly)  killed  outright,  and  sixty- 
eight  (68)  wounded  by  gun  shots  or  maltreated;  that 
is,  this  was  the  number  officially  discovered  and  sworn 
to,  but  there  were  very  many  who  had  disappeared 
whose  fate  was  not  known.  McCleery  added :  “  All 
this  has  had  a  terrible  effect  on  these  (colored)  people, 
unnerving  and  discouraging  them  in  all  respects.” 

The  masked  outlaws  had  spread  terror  from  Winn 
county  to  the  Texas  border ;  they  had  burned  the  court¬ 
house  and  records  of  Winn,  and  stopped  the  courts; 
they  promised  to  kill  our  agent  there  if  he  opened  a 
school,  and  the  teacher  sent  thither  was  never  heard 
from  again,  probably  drowned  in  the  bayou. 

Lieutenant  Butts,  of  the  army,  who  was  murdered 
by  the  same  masked  band  about  election  time,  had  been 
buried  near  where  he  fell.  McCleery  could  get  no  aid 
to  move  his  body  eight  months  after  the  event,  so 
cowed  were  the  citizens,  white  and  black,  by  the  terror 
that  the  Ku-Klux  had  inspired. 

July  11,  1870,  is  the  date  memorable  at  Cross 
Plains,  Ala.,  for  a  later  specimen  of  Ku-Klux  raid.  It 
is  the  one  that  Senator  Wilson  recorded  in  his  “  Kise 
and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Power,”  “  Tony  Clift,  Berry  Har¬ 
ris,  Cresar  Frederick,  and  William  Hall,”  colored  men, 
and  the  “  white  schoolmaster,  William  C.  Luke,”  all  for 
some  insignificant  charge,  raised  against  them,  were  in 
the  hands  of  civil  authorities;  they  were  taken  from 
them  by  force  and  murdered  by  a  detachment  of  the 

386 


The  Ku-Klux  Klan 


Ku-Klux  Klan.  Though  nobody  was  indicted  by  the 
grand  jury  in  this  case,  yet  the  stir  and  opprobrium  of 
this  dastardly  crime,  like  that  in  the  case  of  the  colored 
Baptist  preacher,  Elias  Hill,  who  had  been  dreadfully 
abused  and  scourged  in  the  Carolinas,  made  them¬ 
selves  so  widely  felt,  that  the  organized  outlawry  be¬ 
came  less  apparent  from  that  time  on. 

However,  there  were  some  disturbances,  accom¬ 
panied  by  crime  in  places,  as  in  three  counties  of  Mis¬ 
sissippi,  the  accounts  of  which  came  to  my  headquar¬ 
ters  during  the  spring  of  1871.  The  school,  six  miles 
east  of  Okolona,  was  closed  by  order  of  the  Ku-Klux 
outlaws.  The  information  was  sent  us  on  April  5th. 
All  schools  in  Monroe  county,  over  sixty  in  number, 
were  also  ordered  to  be  closed  by  the  same  authority. 
Notices  were  served  upon  Northern  men  to  leave  the 
State.  The  schoolhouse  at  Meridian  was  burned.  It 
was  built  by  the  Government. 

Reports  came  in  of  Warren  Tyler,  foully  murdered 
at  Meridian;  of  Aaron  Moore  banished  and  his  house 
destroyed;  of  Mayor  Sturgis  driven  from  Meridian;  of 
the  father  of  Wesley  Lee,  pursued  and  finally  assassi¬ 
nated;  of  teachers  (April  21st)  at  Rouses  Mills,  Mon¬ 
roe  county,  and  at  Aberdeen,  driven  off  from  their 
schools  by  the  Ku-Klux ;  of  a  colored  man  named  Dur¬ 
ham  slain  April  23d ;  of  Tom  Hornburger,  a  freedman, 
literally  shot  to  pieces  April  24th;  the  same  night  a 
schoolhouse  burned,  where  a  colored  girl  was  teaching ; 
of  a  postmaster  at  Aberdeen,  a  Southern  Republican, 
ordered  to  change  his  politics ;  at  Athens,  Mississippi, 
of  Alex  Page,  colored,  (March  29)  taken  out  of  his 
house  and  hanged;  near  Hood’s  Church,  of  another 
freedman  shot  and  killed,  about  twelve  miles  from  a 
station  of  some  of  our  troops. 

387 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

A  Ku-Klux  letter  of  notification  ran:  “We  can  in¬ 
form  you  that  we  are  the  law  itself,  and  that  an  order 
from  these  headquarters  is  supreme  above  all  others.” 

I  closed  an  itemized  account  in  a  letter  to  the  Sec¬ 
retary  of  War  in  these  words:  “I  therefore  report 
them  to  enable  you  or  the  President  to  act  officially, 
hoping  that  you  may  be  able  to  cleanse  at  least  three 
counties,  Monroe,  Lowndes,  and  Noxubee,  and  that 
part  of  Lauderdale  especially  infested  by  the  outlaws, 
in  the  way  that  your  extensive  war  experience  has 
taught  you.” 

Keviewing  the  operations  of  those  secret,  unscrupu¬ 
lous  organizations  popularly  known  as  “  Ku-Klux 
Klans,”  in  connection  with  the  freedmen’s  education, 
after  an  interval  of  forty  years,  my  conclusions  are  as 
expressed  in  the  following  language: 

“  The  operations  of  the  Ku-Klux  Klan  were  di¬ 
rected  principally  against  the  negroes,  and  those  who 
were  supposed  to  especially  lend  them  countenance,  by 
murders,  whippings,  and  other  acts  of  violence,  to  in¬ 
spire  them  with  such  terror  as  to  render  unavailable 
their  newly  conferred  political  privileges.” 

But  the  hostility  to  education  was  rather  incidental 
than  otherwise.  The  grand  object  of  the  “  Solid 
South,”  so  called,  was  to  prevent  what  was  denomi¬ 
nated  “  negro  domination.”  The  secret  societies 
turned  their  machinery  against  Union  Southerners 
to  silence  or  convert  them ;  against  “  carpet  baggers  ” 
(which  included  the  Northern  teachers  of  colored 
schools)  to  banish  them;  and  against  all  negroes  to  so 
intimidate  and  terrorize  them  that  they  would  not  dare 
to  vote  except  as  their  new  masters  directed.  All  my 
officers  and  agents  were  naturally  involved  in  the  dan¬ 
gers  and  sufferings  of  their  wards. 

388 


The  Ku-Klux  Klan 


After  Grant  became  President,  United  States  mili¬ 
tary  action  against  the  Ku-Klux  was  very  prompt  and 
had  much  to  do  with  causing  the  cessation  of  their  out¬ 
rages.  But  the  end  sought  by  those  cruel  associations 
had  been  obtained,  first  by  their  action  and  later  by 
the  counting  of  the  ballots  against  the  blacks.  Negro 
voting,  negro  office  holding,  and  negro  domination 
were  put  under  an  effectual  ban.  But  in  spite  of  all 
the  cruelties  and  hindrances  the  education  of  the  freed- 
men  has  been  rapidly  developed  and  steadily  advanced, 
till  all  the  States  have  a  reasonably  good  basis  for 
free  schools  and  the  foundation  of  a  system  of  univer¬ 
sal  education. 


389 


CHAPTER  LVIII 


BEGINNING  OF  HOWARD  UNIVERSITY 

T  N  my  earlier  interviews  with  Mr.  Stanton  in  May, 
^  1865,  I  claimed  that  the  education  of  the  freed- 

men’s  children,  and  of  adults,  as  far  as  practicable,  was 
the  true  relief. 

“Relief  from  what?”  asked  Stanton,  glancing 
toward  me  over  his  colored  glasses. 

“Relief  from' beggary  and  dependence,”  I  replied. 

I  had  the  same  opinion  with  reference  to  our  nu¬ 
merous  “  white  refugees  ”  of  the  South,  though  it  was 
believed  that  they  would  naturally  be  incorporated  in 
ordinary  schools  there  without  such  prejudice  to  their 
interests  as  existed  against  the  negro  population. 

Very  soon  all  my  assistants  agreed  with  me  that  it 
would  not  be  long  before  we  must  have  negro  teachers , 
if  we  hoped  to  secure  a  permanent  foothold  for  our 
schools.  This  conclusion  had  become  plain  from  the 
glimpses  already  given  into  Southern  society.  Natu¬ 
rally  enough,  the  most  Christian  of  the  Southern  peo¬ 
ple  would  prefer  to  have  white  teachers  from  among 
themselves.  Feeling  a  sympathy  for  this  seeming 
home  prejudice,  quite  early  in  1866,  I  tried  the  experi¬ 
ment  in  one  State,  in  cooperation  with  the  Episcopal 
Bishop  of  that  State,  to  put  over  our  school  children 
Southern  white  teachers,  male  and  female,  but  the 
bishop  and  I  found  that  their  faith  in  negro  education 

390 


Beginning  of  Howard  University 

was  too  small,  and  tlieir  ignorance  of  practical  teach¬ 
ing  too  great,  to  admit  of  any  reasonable  degree  of  suc¬ 
cess.  After  trial  and  failure  it  was  given  up.  But 
faith  and  enthusiasm  combined  to  give  the  negro  teach¬ 
ers  a  marvelous  progress.  Of  course,  in  the  outset 
there  were  few  negroes  in  the  United  States  who  were 
properly  fitted  to  teach.  The  most  who  had  a  smatter¬ 
ing  of  learning  could  not  speak  the  English  language 
with  a  reasonable  correctness.  It  was  then  a  plain 
necessity  to  have  schools  which  could  prepare  teach¬ 
ers.  My  own  sentiment  often  found  vent  when  I  was 
visited  by  men  of  opposite  convictions — the  one  set 
saying  that  no  high  schools  or  colleges  were  wanted 
for  the  freedmen,  and  the  other  declaring  their  imme¬ 
diate  and  pressing  necessity.  My  own  thought  favored 
the  latter,  but  not  with  haste.  It  was  given  in  this 
form:  “You  cannot  keep  up  the  lower  grades  unless 
you  have  the  higher.”  Academies  and  colleges,  univer¬ 
sities  and  normal  schools,  had  long  been  a  necessity  in 
all  sections  where  the  free  schools  had  been  continu¬ 
ously  sustained. 

A  brief  experience  showed  us  that  the  negro  peo¬ 
ple  were  capable  of  education,  with  no  limit  that  men 
could  set  to  their  capacity.  What  white  men  could 
learn  or  had  learned,  they,  or  some  of  them,  could 
learn.  There  was  one  school  diagonally  across  the 
street  from  my  headquarters,  named  the  Wayland 
Seminary.  The  pupils  were  from  fourteen  to  twenty 
years  of  age.  It  was  taught  in  1866  by  a  lady,  who, 
herself,  was  not  only  a  fine  scholar,  but  a  thoroughly 
trained  teacher.  One  day  the  Hon.  Kenneth  Baynor, 
of  North  Carolina,  whom  I  had  long  known  and  valued 
as  a  personal  friend,  came  to  my  room  to  labor  with 
me  and  show  me  how  unwise  were  some  of  my  ideas. 

391 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

He  said  in  substance  about  this  educating  the 
f  reedmen : 

“  General  Howard,  do  you  not  know  that  you  are 
educating  the  colored  youth  above  their  business?  You 
will  only  destroy  them.  Those  young  girls,  for  ex¬ 
ample  ;  they  will  be  too  proud  or  vain  to  work,  and  the 
consequence  will  be  that  they  will  go  to  dance  houses 
and  other  places  of  improper  resort.” 

“  Why,  my  friend,”  I  replied,  “  do  you  really  think 
that?  I  am  astonished!  That  is  not  the  way  educa¬ 
tion  affects  the  Yankee  girls.  Come  with  me  to  the 
Wayland  school,  across  the  street.” 

We  went  together  to  the  large  school  building  and 
entered  the  commodious  room  where  the  school  was 
just  commencing  its  morning  exercises.  After  extend¬ 
ing  a  pleasant  welcome,  the  teacher  gave  us  seats  well 
back,  where  we  could  see  the  blackboards,  which  were 
near  her  desk,  and  the  open  school  organ  at  her  left, 
ready  for  use.  She  first  sent  up  two  nice-looking  girls, 
of  about  fifteen  years,  to  the  instrument.  One  played, 
and  the  other,  like  a  precentor,  led  the  school  in  sing¬ 
ing.  There  was  evident  culture  in  the  singing  and 
playing,  and  none  of  the  melody  was  wanting.  My 
friend’s  eyes  moistened;  but  he  whispered:  “They 
always  could  sing !  ” 

Next,  we  had  a  class  of  reading.  It  was  grateful 
to  cultured  ears  to  have  sentences  well  read  and  words 
correctly  pronounced.  Spelling  and  defining  followed, 
with  very  few  mistakes.  The  recitations  at  the  black¬ 
board  in  arithmetic  that  next  came  on  were  remarkable. 
To  test  the  pupils  beyond  their  text,  I  went  forward 
and  placed  some  hard  problems  there.  With  readiness 
and  intelligence  they  were  solved.  The  politeness  and 
bearing  of  these  young  people  to  one  another,  to  the 

392 


Beginning  of  Howard  University 

teacher,  and  to  ns,  struck  my  good  friend  with  aston¬ 
ishment.  Such  a  school,  even  of  whites,  so  orderly,  so 
well  trained,  and  so  accomplished,  Mr.  Raynor  had  sel¬ 
dom  seen.  As  we  returned  across  the  street,  arm  in 
arm,  he  said  to  me :  “  General,  you  have  converted 
me !  ”  This  fine  seminary  was  tantamount  to  a  normal 
school.  It  was  preparing  many  excellent  teachers  for 
their  subsequent  work. 

Miss  M.  R.  Mann,  a  niece  of  the  Hon.  Horace 
Mann,  through  the  aid  of  Massachusetts  friends,  had 
a  handsome  school  building  constructed  in  Washing¬ 
ton,  D.  C.,  and  it  had  the  best  possible  appliances  fur¬ 
nished — all  for  her  own  use.  She  charged  tuition,  ex¬ 
cept  for  those  whose  purpose  was  avowed  to  become 
teachers.  She  commenced  at  the  foundation  of  instruc¬ 
tion,  and  led  her  pupils  step  by  step  on  and  up,  class 
by  class,  as  high  as  she  could  conveniently  take  them. 
She  began  the  enterprise  in  December,  1865.  Pupils 
of  different  ages  were  admitted,  so  that  teachers,  still 
in  embryo,  might  learn  by  experiment.  It  became 
before  long  the  model  school  of  the  District  of  Colum¬ 
bia.  The  neatness  and  order,  the  elegant  rooms  for 
reciting,  and  the  high  grade  of  Miss  Mann’s  classes  in 
recitations  always  attracted  and  surprised  visitors. 
From  this  school,  also,  several  teachers  graduated  and 
proved  themselves  able  and  worthy  in  their  subse¬ 
quent  successful  career. 

There  were  various  other  schools,  as  we  know,  in 
the  United  States  which  had  been  long  in  existence, 
preparing  colored  teachers,  physicians,  ministers,  law¬ 
yers,  and  others  for  the  coming  needs  of  the  new  citi¬ 
zens — notably  Oberlin  College;  Wilberforce  Univer¬ 
sity,  of  Xenia,  0. ;  Berea  Academy,  Ky. ;  The  Theologi¬ 
cal  Institute  (Baptist)  at  Washington,  D.  C.,  and  Ash- 

393 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

mun  Institute  at  Oxford,  Pa.  The  institute  also  for 
colored  youth  in  Philadelphia,  founded  in  1837  by  the 
bequest  of  a  Friend,  Bichard  Humphreys,  was  designed 
to  teach  agriculture  and  mechanical  arts,  and  prepare 
teachers  for  their  profession.  By  other  gifts,  and  by 
the  help  of  benevolent  and  friendly  associations,  this 
institute  had  come,  in  1866,  to  have  a  capacity  for 
three  hundred  (300)  pupils;  it  was  fairly  endowed  and 
doing  well,  giving  excellent  results.  Its  teachers  were 
all  colored  persons.  It  had  that  year  48  graduates,  31 
of  whom  became  teachers.  Still,  notwithstanding 
these  sources  of  supply,  the  need  for  more  teachers 
was  constant,  and  if  any  general  system  of  free 
schools  should  be  adopted,  the  demand  would  be  a  hun¬ 
dred  times  beyond  the  possibility  of  meeting  it  by  com¬ 
petent  instructors. 

As  the  work  of  carrying  forward  the  schools  devel¬ 
oped,  the  old  negro  clergymen  of  every  name  became 
inadequate  for  the  religious  instruction  of  the  more 
enlightened  people.  Many  ministers  felt  themselves  to 
be  unlearned,  and  so  sought  such  knowledge  of  books 
as  they  could  get.  Negro  pharmacists  and  other  medi¬ 
cal  men  were  soon  required,  and  contentions  with 
white  men  in  the  courts  demanded  friendly  advocates 
at  law. 

Under  the  evident  and  growing  necessity  for  higher 
education,  in  1866  and  1867,  a  beginning  was  made. 
Various  good  schools  of  a  collegiate  grade  were  started 
in  the  South,  and  normal  classes  were  about  this  time 
added,  as  at  Hampton,  Charleston,  Atlanta,  Macon, 
Savannah,  Memphis,  Louisville,  Mobile,  Talladega, 
Nashville,  New  Orleans,  and  elsewhere. 

In  every  way,  as  commissioner,  I  now  encouraged 
the  higher  education,  concerning  which  there  was  so 

394 


Beginning  of  Howard  University 

much  interest,  endeavoring  to  adhere  to  my  principle 
of  Government  aid  in  dealing  with  the  benevolent  as¬ 
sociations.  These,  by  1867,  had  broken  away  from  a 
common  union,  and  were  again  pushing  forward  their 
denominational  enterprises,  but  certainly,  under  the 
Bureau’s  supervision,  nowhere  did  they  hurtfully  in¬ 
terfere  with  one  another. 

Each  denomination  desired  to  have,  here  and  there, 
a  college  of  its  own.  Such  institutions  the  founders 
and  patrons  were  eager  to  make  different  from  the 
simple  primary  or  grammar  schools;  these,  it  was 
hoped  and  believed,  would  be  eventually  absorbed  in 
each  State  in  a  great  free  school  system.  The  educa¬ 
tors  naturally  wished  to  put  a  moral  and  Christian 
stamp  upon  their  students,  especially  upon  those  who 
would  become  instructors  of  colored  youth.  My  own 
strong  wish  was  ever  to  lay  permanent  substructures 
and  build  thereon  as  rapidly  as  possible,  in  order  to 
give  as  many  good  teachers,  professional  men,  and 
leaders  to  the  rising  generation  of  freedmen  as  we 
could,  during  the  few  years  of  Governmental  control. 

One  of  the  institutions  for  the  higher  education  of 
the  negro  which  has  maintained  ample  proportions  and 
also  bears  my  own  name,  warrants  me  in  giving  some¬ 
what  in  detail  its  origin  and  my  connection  with  it. 

The  latter  part  of  1866,  a  few  gentlemen,  at  the  in¬ 
stance  of  Rev.  F.  B.  Morris,  who  held  an  important 
Governmental  office  at  the  capital,  and  was  a  benevo¬ 
lent  and  scholarly  man,  came  together  at  the  house  of 
Mr.  A.  Brewster,  on  K  Street,  Washington. 

There  had  been  two  or  three  of  such  informal  meet¬ 
ings,  consisting  mainly  of  residents  of  Washington, 
when  Senators  Wilson  and  Pomeroy,  B.  C.  Cook,  Mem¬ 
ber  of  the  House,  and  myself  were  invited  to  this  re- 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

spectable  self-constituted  council,  November  20,  1866. 
Nearly  all  of  the  dozen  or  more  gentlemen  who  were 
present,  and  among  them  Rev.  Dr.  C.  B.  Boynton,  the 
pastor  of  the  Congregational  Church  of  the  city,  were 
Congregationalists.  A  preliminary  organization  was 
already  in  existence.  The  subject  under  discussion  for 
this  time  was  a  place  for  a  theological  school  for  the 
colored  preachers  and  those  who  were  to  become  such, 
that  their  teachings  should  be  of  value.  Mr.  H.  D. 
Nichols  moved  that  the  new  institution  be  entitled 
“  Howard  Theological  Seminary.”  That  name  was 
adopted.  Mr.  Morris  and  some  others  were  in  the  out¬ 
set  in  favor  of  connecting  with  the  seminary  some  in¬ 
dustrial  features;  and,  to  show  my  good  will,  I  made 
the  same  offer,  being  authorized  by  the  law,  that  I  had 
been  making  to  other  educational  associations,  that  if 
they  would  furnish  a  proper  lot,  I  would  cause  to  be 
erected  thereon,  by  the  Bureau,  a  suitable  building.  I 
believed  it  wiser  not  to  use  my  name,  but  it  was  re¬ 
marked  sportively  “  there  are  other  Howards.” 

At  a  meeting  December  4,  1866,  there  was  in  ideas 
and  proposals  considerable  progress  manifested.  At 
first,  I  had  desired  delay,  thinking  that  the  time  was 
hardly  ripe  for  a  large  institution  at  the  capital;  but, 
seeing  the  enthusiasm  and  fixed  purpose  of  this  body 
of  some  fourteen  gentlemen,  a  few  of  whom  I  now  ob¬ 
served  were  Presbyterians  and  two  or  three  of  other 
persuasions,  I  participated  in  their  discussions. 
“  Howard  Normal  and  Theological  Institute  for  the 
Education  of  Teachers  and  Preachers,”  was  the  new 
title  adopted. 

On  January  8,  1867,  at  another  gathering,  Dr. 
Boynton  was  elected  the  president  of  the  preliminary 
board.  At  this  session  my  brother,  General  C.  H. 

396 


Beginning  of  Howard  University 

Howard,  then  assistant  commissioner  of  the  district 
and  vicinity,  moved  a  committee  to  plan  a  law  depart¬ 
ment — a  medical  department  having  already  been  fa¬ 
vorably  canvassed.  Thus,  little  by  little,  the  idea  of  a 
university  grew  upon  the  preliminary  board,  the  proj¬ 
ect  of  an  institution  which  should  have  many  separate 
departments  acting  together  under  one  board  of  trus¬ 
tees.  At  this  January  sitting,  an  important  committee 
was  named  to  obtain  a  charter.  It  consisted  of  Sena¬ 
tors  Wilson  and  Pomeroy  and  Hon.  B.  C.  Cook ;  and  in 
anticipation  of  funds,  General  George  W.  Balloch  was 
elected  treasurer  of  the  university.  The  institution 
had  already  stepped  up  into  the  dignity  of  another 
name,  to  wit :  “  Howard  University.”  I  had,  during 
the  discussion,  continued  to  oppose  that  name,  not  only 
from  modesty,  but  from  my  feeling  that  I  could  do 
more  privately  and  officially  for  an  enterprise  that  did 
not  bear  my  own  name ;  I  did  not  wish  to  be  suspected 
and  accused  of  raising  a  monument  to  myself.  But 
the  universal  voice  was  against  me;  in  fact,  the  nam¬ 
ing  did  little  harm,  for  it  was  not  long  before  the  name, 
even  in  a  public  address  to  the  students,  was  imputed 
by  a  distinguished  English  divine  to  John  Howard,  the 
philanthropist.  The  charter  was  easily  obtained,  hav¬ 
ing  seventeen  charter  members.  The  incorporation 
title  was :  “  An  Act  to  incorporate  the  Howard  Uni¬ 
versity  in  the  District  of  Columbia.”  It  was  approved 
by  the  President  of  the  United  States  March  2,  1867. 

The  enactment  required  a  board  of  trustees  of  not 
less  than  thirteen  members  to  be  chosen  by  the  incor¬ 
porators. 

The  scope  of  the  university,  in  keeping  with  my 
own  plan  for  that  institution,  is  indicated  in  the  char¬ 
ter  :  to  consist  of  six  designated  departments  and  such 

397 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

others  as  the  trustees  may  establish — first,  normal; 
second,  collegiate ;  third,  theological ;  fourth,  law ;  fifth, 
medicine;  sixth,  agriculture.  Under  this  charter, 
Howard  University  was  set  in  motion. 

General  Whittlesey  and  I  were  very  soon  appointed 
a  committee  to  look  up  a  site.  We  had  visited  various 
parts  of  the  District  of  Columbia  without  being  able 
to  get  an  option  for  our  purpose,  when,  one  day,  we 
were  standing  near  the  place  where  the  largest  struc¬ 
ture  of  Howard  University  now  is.  Whittlesey  had- 
been  there  before  and  liked  the  site.  It  was  now  evi¬ 
dent  to  us  both  that  we  could  not  find  a  more  appro¬ 
priate  place.  The  outlook,  taking  in  the  city  of  Wash¬ 
ington,  the  monument,  the  Capitol,  the  White  House, 
and  other  public  buildings,  and  a  grand  expanse  be¬ 
sides,  including  miles  of  the  Potomac,  could  not  be  bet¬ 
ter.  To  locate  good  structures  there  would  make 
weight  for  the  manhood  of  those  whom  we  especially 
purposed  to  benefit  by  a  university  education. 

Together  we  went  to  the  house  of  the  owner  of  the 
estate,  Mr.  John  A.  Smith;  it  was  situated  just  beyond 
the  present  location  of  the  President’s  house.  The  cot¬ 
tage  was  almost  hidden  by  a  small  grove  of  trees.  We 
found  Mr.  Smith,  with  his  wife  and  two  or  three  mem¬ 
bers  of  his  family.  As  we  sat  together,  I  tried  to  get 
Mr.  Smith  to  promise  a  third  of  his  farm.  He  claimed 
to  have  150  acres.  Some  time  before  this  the  Bureau 
had  purchased  a  small  lot  nearer  the  city  of  this  Mr. 
Smith,  with  an  old  dance  house  on  it,  to  use  it  for  edu¬ 
cational  purposes,  and  had  rented  the  same  to  the  trus¬ 
tees  for  the  first  university  school.  It  would  unify  the 
proposed  departments  if  we  could  now  make  a  favor¬ 
able  bargain  with  Mr.  Smith.  But  he  insisted  on  sell¬ 
ing  the  whole  at  one  thousand  dollars  ($1,000)  per 

398 


Beginning  of  Howard  University 

acre,  or  none  at  all.  General  Whittlesey  was  of  the 
opinion  that  in  a  few  years’  time  enough  of  such  a 
property  could  be  sold  to  pay  Mr.  Smith’s  price,  and 
still  leave  us  a  reasonable  portion  as  a  reserve  for  our 
use.  I,  too,  felt  sure  of  it.  Suddenly,  I  said :  “  Mr. 
Smith,  what  terms  will  you  give  us  on  the  whole 
tract  1  ” 

He  answered :  “  One  third  down  and  the  balance  in 
one  and  two  years.” 

“  All  right,”  I  answered,  “  we  will  take  the  land 
provided  you  give  us  a  clear  title.” 

His  wife  turned  pale  at  the  suddenness  of  the  bar¬ 
gain,  and  there  was  evident  excitement  in  all  the  com¬ 
pany  present.  After  we  had  left  the  house,  General 
Whittlesey,  who  was  a  good  business  man,  remarked 
with  a  smile:  “Well,  general,  if  the  trustees  do  not 
sustain  us  in  this  purchase,  we  can  handle  it  without 
them.” 

We  were  sustained  by  our  board,  though  the  ques¬ 
tion  of  money  troubled  them.  Time  was  gained  by 
finding  that  there  were  several  incumbrances  which  re¬ 
quired  negotiation  and  settlement.  At  last,  Mr.  Smith 
deducted  on  this  account  two  thousand  dollars  ($2,000) 
and  the  settled  price  became  one  hundred  and  forty- 
seven  thousand  five  hundred  dollars  ($147,500).  Gen¬ 
eral  Whittlesey  and  Mr.  R.  M.  Hall  were  consti¬ 
tuted  our  land  agents  with  power  to  advertise  and  con¬ 
vey.  The  trustees  authorized  them  to  make  surveys 
and  maps,  and  instructed  them  to  sell  all  the  lots  over 
and  above  the  University  Reservation. 

Later,  in  his  report  to  our  board,  which  unkind 
criticism  had  drawn  out,  Whittlesey  made  several  in¬ 
teresting  statements ;  for  instance  he  wrote :  “  When 
appointed  the  agent  of  the  board  the  task  was  set 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

before  me  of  solving  tlie  financial  problem  of  making 
one  half  or  two  thirds  of  the  land  purchased  pay  for 
the  whole.  This  I  have  done.  My  success  has  been  a 
happy  surprise  to  myself.  My  work  is  open  to  fair 
criticism,  but  I  am  not  willing  to  be  subjected  to  un¬ 
just  censure.”  He  just  then  demurred  at  the  yoke  of 
extraordinary  surveillance  that  was  sought  to  be  im¬ 
posed  upon  him,  and  he  asked  them  to  find  another 
agent  in  whom  they  could  repose  ordinary  confidence 
exercised  among  business  men. 

In  the  same  paper,  Whittlesey  said :  “  The  truth  is, 
the  board  of  trustees  have  had  very  little  to  do  with 
the  purchase  of  this  property.  They  did  not  encour¬ 
age  it.  Several  members  expressed  opposition  to  the 
whole  project. 

“  The  work  was  done  by  General  Howard  and  by  me, 
acting  under  his  authority.  The  entire  responsibility 
was  thrown  upon  us.  Had  it  been  a  failure,  we  should 
have  borne  the  disgrace,  and  the  board  would  have 
declared  itself  free  from  all  blame.  It  has  not  failed, 
and  every  person  in  the  land,  who  has  at  heart  the  wel¬ 
fare  of  the  university  and  the  good  of  those  for  whom 
it  is  designed,  must  rejoice.” 

How  to  meet  the  primary  payment  was  my  first 
problem.  Some  gifts  had  come  to  our  university  treas¬ 
ury,  but  they  were  not  enough.  The  university  treas¬ 
urer  showed  that  the  first  amount  to  be  paid  to  Mr. 
Smith  was  twenty  thousand  dollars  ($20,000).  To 
meet  that  and  other  expenses  in  starting  this  enter¬ 
prise,  there  was  in  the  hands  of  the  Bureau  disbursing 
officer  a  residue  of  “  the  refugees  and  freedmen’s 
fund.”  And  as  I  had  the  authority  of  law  in  the  Ap¬ 
propriation  Act  for  March  2,  1867,  to  use  it  at  my  dis¬ 
cretion  for  education,  after  reflection,  I  resolved  to 

400 


Beginning  of  Howard  University 

transfer  thirty  thousand  dollars  ($30,000)  to  the  How¬ 
ard  University  treasury,  and  did  so  by  a  carefully 
drawn  order  dated  April  15,  1867.  The  university 
treasurer,  being  duly  authorized  by  the  trustees,  re¬ 
ceipted  for  the  same.  Thus  the  treasurer  now  had  am¬ 
ple  means  to  meet  the  first  payment. 

July  2d  of  this  same  year  the  executive  committee 
of  Howard  University  wrote  to  the  board :  “  The  num¬ 
ber  of  lots  sold  is  245,  and  their  average  value,  as 
estimated  by  Mr.  R.  M.  Hall,  their  agent,  is  six  hun¬ 
dred  dollars  ($600)  each,  and  the  total  value  one  hun¬ 
dred  and  forty-seven  thousand  dollars  ($147,000),”  so 
that  the  university  treasury  was  fairly  well  supplied, 
as  the  deferred  payments  from  lots,  from  time  to  time, 
came  in. 

Able  instructors,  meanwhile,  were  selected.  A  nor¬ 
mal  department  and  a  preparatory  to  fit  young  men 
and  women  for  teachers  and  for  college  courses  were 
well  under  way  before  the  end  of  the  year.  More  than 
100  pupils  were  enrolled,  and  a  small  college  class 
formed.  Theological  lectures  and  careful  teaching 
were  given  to  an  assembly  of  colored  ministers  of  va¬ 
rious  denominations,  who  had  been  but  partially  pre¬ 
pared  for  their  work  in  their  churches.  The  task  of 
planning  suitable  structures,  and  of  erecting  them, 
went  steadily  on.  Applications  were  numerous  for  the 
admission  of  students  from  all  parts  of  the  country. 

Thus  I  have  indicated  the  beginnings  of  that  large 
institution,  which  has  already  given  to  intelligent 
youth  at  the  nation’s  capital,  whatever  might  have  been 
their  previous  condition,  the  benefits  of  a  complete  col¬ 
legiate  course  and  of  a  thorough  professional  training. 


401 


CHAPTER  LIX 


INSTITUTIONS  OF  THE  HIGHER  GRADE;  THE  BARRY  FARM 


T  tlie  time  of  this  writing  we  are  able  to  take  a 


A  *  brief  review  of  the  several  freedmen’s  institu¬ 
tions  that  were  commenced  more  or  less  under  my  su¬ 
pervision.  Naturally  enough,  in  the  several  historic 
accounts  given  by  the  present  professors  or  presidents, 
more  credit  is  awarded  to  private  donors  than  to  pub¬ 
lic  officers,  even  when  the  latter  were  the  real  promo¬ 
ters;  yet  in  case  of  the  higher  schools,  such  as  were 
capable  of  educating  and  supplying  efficient  teachers 
for  a  vast  field,  those  officers  did  lead  the  way  against 
a  strong  and  decided  opposition.  They  made  innumer¬ 
able  sacrifices,  labored  incessantly,  and  endured  ob¬ 
loquy  and  false  accusations  while  they  were  steadily 
planting  and  sustaining  such  institutions,  wholly  wor¬ 
thy,  which  now  every  contributor  who  is  still  alive  is 
proud  to  have  helped.  Taking  these  schools  alpha¬ 
betically  : 

1.  Atlanta  University  was  chartered  in  1867.  It  is 
governed  by  a  corporate  body  formed  “  for  the  Chris¬ 
tian  education  of  youth.”  It  includes  both  male  and 
female  students.  I  can  remember  in  the  outset  when 
the  Hon.  E.  P.  Smith,  then  a  field  agent  of  the  Ameri¬ 
can  Missionary  Association,  came  to  my  office  and  sat 
down  with  me  to  see  what  could  be  done  to  found  this 
institution.  I  said :  “  My  friend,  get  your  land  and 


402 


Institutions  of  the  Higher  Grade 

your  corporation  to  hold  it  and  I  will  attend  to  the 
erection  of  your  first  buildings,  and  to  the  transporta¬ 
tion  thither  of  your  teachers.  Hence,  we  now  find  in 
the  catalogue  these  facts :  Money  came  from  the  Freed- 
men’s  Bureau  and  other  sources;  a  noble  site  of  fifty 
acres  on  the  west  side  of  Atlanta  was  procured;  in 
1869  the  first  building  was  opened  and  at  once  crowded 
with  students;  other  good  things  followed. 

In  time  Atlanta  University  became  independent  of 
the  American  Missionary  Association,  so  as  to  be  as 
far  as  possible  without  denominational  connection  and 
control. 

It  has  a  college  church  organization  of  its  own, 
where  the  Methodist,  Baptist,  Episcopalian,  and  Con¬ 
gregational  young  people  labor  together.  This  works 
so  well  that  all  the  graduates  of  this  year  are  in  the 
best  sense  of  the  word,  Christians. 

Bev.  E.  A.  Ware,  whom,  while  he  lived,  I  counted 
as  a  personal  friend,  was  the  president  for  the  first 
sixteen  years  till  his  death.  He  kept  the  advance  for 
Georgia  in  education  of  the  higher  grade.  The  uni¬ 
versity  is  still  vigorous  under  President  Horace  Bum- 
stead,  D.D.  The  present  student  enrollment  is  273. 
It  has  many  fine  buildings  which,  with  land  and  equip¬ 
ment,  are  valued  at  $290,000,  and  14  instructors.  In¬ 
dustrial  training  is  supplied :  for  hoys  the  care  and  use 
of  tools  for  the  first  year ;  the  use  of  the  turning  lathe, 
including  drawings,  with  considerable  job  and  fancy 
work  for  the  second  year;  mechanical  drawing,  use  of 
instruments  in  all  sorts  of  architectural  and  other  con¬ 
structions  for  the  third  year. 

For  the  girls ,  in  their  industrial  division,  sewing, 
cooking,  and  household  management  are  made  much  of. 
Both  boys  and  girls,  at  option,  work  in  the  printing 

403 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

office.  Several  fine  publications  have  been  the  result; 
and  tlie  students  do  considerable  job  printing  for  the 
outside  market.  As  the  demand  for  teaching  in  Geor¬ 
gia  is  still  great,  this  university  continues  to  pay  most 
attention  to  this  part  of  its  labor  and  claims  to  have 
furnished  the  best  prepared  teachers  in  the  State.  It 
wouldn’t  be  quite  right  to  complain  of  an  industrial  in¬ 
stitution  like  Atlanta  University. 

2.  The  S very  Institute ,  situated  in  Charleston,  S. 
C.,  was  established  by  the  American  Missionary  Asso¬ 
ciation  in  1866.  It  is  mentioned  in  my  accounts  for 
1870  as  having  305  pupils,  9  teachers,  and  two  build¬ 
ings.  It  has  maintained  its  existence  and  has  to-day 
8  teachers,  and  348  pupils,  though  but  few  of  them  are 
in  the  higher  grades. 

3.  The  Biddle  Memorial  Institute ,  started  by  the 
Presbyterians  at  Charlotte,  N.  C.,  has  been  raised  into 
the  Biddle  University.  I  aided  the  incorporated  board 
of  trustees,  as  I  did  those  at  Atlanta,  from  educational 
funds  with  $10,000.  Now  this  university  has  a  high 
school,  a  normal  and  collegiate  course,  and  enrolled 
last  year  240  students.  About  170  of  them  receive  ad¬ 
ditional  industrial  instruction. 

4.  Berea  College  is  located  in  Madison  county,  Ky. 
It  began  during  1855  as  a  select  school  with  15  pupils ; 
was  incorporated  as  Berea  College  in  1859.  The  char¬ 
ter  applied  to  “  all  persons  of  good  moral  character.” 
At  first  the  pupils  were  all  white.  After  consideration 
by  the  teachers  and  trustees,  including  the  founder, 
John  G.  Fee,  the  sentiment  adopted  and  acted  upon 
was :  “  If  anyone  made  in  God’s  image  comes  here  to 
get  knowledge  which  will  enable  him  to  understand  his 
relation  to  God  in  Jesus  Christ,  he  cannot  be  rejected.” 
This  would  admit  negroes.  In  consequence  of  this  ac- 

404 


Institutions  of  the  Higher  Grade 

tion  or  sentiment,  a  steady  and  bitter  persecution 
arose  against  all  the  instructors  and  patrons  of  the 
college,  and  the  sessions  were  for  a  long  time  inter¬ 
mitted.  When  I  came  to  the  freedmen’s  work  in  1865, 
the  institution,  hardly  yet  advanced  enough  to  bear  the 
name  of  college,  was  reorganized  by  Prof.  J.  A.  R. 
Rogers,  and  though  suffering  much  opposition  in  Ken¬ 
tucky  because  of  its  coeducation  of  whites  and  blacks, 
soon  had  plenty  of  students  of  both  colors.  From  the 
start  I  determined  to  help  Berea,  particularly  because 
of  its  Southern  origin  and  because  of  its  sturdy  and 
fearless  recognition  of  the  manhood  of  the  negro. 

In  1866  and  1867  we  called  it  “  Berea  Literary  In¬ 
stitute.”  It  was  still  elementary  and  then  composed  of 
both  races,  in  about  equal  numbers.  The  progress  was 
manifest ;  pupils  who  had  commenced  there  with  mono¬ 
syllables  were  in  three  months  able  to  read  fairly  well. 

The  latter  part  of  1867,  four  new  buildings,  princi¬ 
pally  by  my  aid,  had  been  erected.  The  normal  fea¬ 
tures  were  already  introduced  and  240  pupils  enrolled. 
Many  young  men  and  young  women  were  receiving 
special  training  for  teachers. 

Before  the  close  of  1868,  the  record  calls  the  school 
by  its  charter  name :  “  Berea  College.”  There  were 
156  students.  My  superintendent  of  education,  who 
paid  them  a  visit,  spoke  of  the  excellent  recitations  in 
mathematics  and  the  classics,  and  predicted  for  Berea 
a  grand  future. 

A  year  later  the  construction  of  Chase  Hall,  which 
I  helped  largely,  is  mentioned  in  the  Kentucky  reports. 
It  was  finished  in  September  and  cost  us  about  $17,- 
000.  The  money  was  well  appropriated. 

Another  communication  of  my  superintendent  in 
Kentucky  concerning  Berea  says :  “  Upon  the  earnest 

405 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

solicitation  of  President  Fairchild  and  Mr.  Fee  I  deter¬ 
mined  to  finish  the  work  at  Berea  by  giving  them  an 
additional  $2,000.” 

And  the  final  reference  to  the  college  in  1870  shows 
my  authorization  of  $7,000  more  to  complete  the  large 
and  commodious  Ladies’  Hall. 

This  placed  Berea  with  its  extensive  grounds  on  a 
substantial  basis.  The  students  there  numbered  170 
with  eight  teachers.  Having  steadily  grown,  Berea  in 
1896  had  460  students  and  23  instructors.  In  1903,  972 
students  and  52  instructors,  and  property  valued  at 
$791,968.  The  Government  aid  was  for  the  freedmen 
and  such  as  would  properly  be  called  refugees  and 
their  descendants. 

5.  The  Barrel  School ,  one  of  a  high  order,  at 
Selma,  Ala.,  had  in  1870  but  35  pupils  and  two  teach¬ 
ers.  In  1896  there  were  92  pupils. 

6.  Claflin  University  was  organized  in  1869  at 
Orangeburg,  S.  C.  In  my  accounts  of  schools  for  1870 
I  mention  it  as  then  under  Methodist  auspices.  It  had 
a  good  academic  course  of  study  and  numbered  170 
pupils  with  9  instructors.  By  Act  of  the  South  Caro¬ 
lina  legislature,  1872,  the  university  was  enlarged  to 
embrace  the  Institute  for  Agriculture  and  Mechanic 
Arts. 

It  was  recorded  in  1895  as  nonsectarian,  having 
570  students. 

In  1896  the  two  institutions,  Claflin  University 
proper  and  the  Institute  for  Agriculture,  separated 
and  now  educate  youth  each  in  its  own  line.  Claflin 
University  had  an  enrollment  in  1904  of  481  pupils. 

7.  Central  Tennessee  College ,  located  at  Nashville, 
Tenn.,  and  founded  by  the  Methodist  Freedmen’s  Aid 
Society,  had  in  1870  92  scholars  and  5  teachers.  It  had 

406 


Institutions  of  the  Higher  Grade 

risen  in  1896  to  a  total  of  165  scholars,  all  in  profes¬ 
sional  courses. 

The  first  building  used  by  this  college  was  a  Con¬ 
federate  gun  factory. 

8.  Fish  University  had  its  beginning  in  the  thought 
and  plan  of  E.  P.  Smith  and  E.  M.  Cravath,  who  were 
both  at  the  time  secretaries  of  the  American  Mission¬ 
ary  Association.  They  met  at  Nashville,  Tenn.,  Octo¬ 
ber  3,  1865,  and  had  a  conference  on  the  subject  of  mak¬ 
ing  Nashville  an  educational  center  for  the  then  newly 
emancipated  and  their  descendants.  This  conference 
soon  took  into  its  councils  General  C.  B.  Fisk,  commis¬ 
sioner,  and  Prof.  John  Ogden,  an  able  educator  who 
had  been  an  officer  of  the  army  during  the  war.  A  half 
square  of  land  was  purchased,  and  by  General  Fisk’s 
solicitation  a  number  of  temporary  hospital  structures 
which  were  on  the  land  were  by  the  Government 
assigned  to  the  use  of  the  proposed  university.  Janu¬ 
ary  9,  1866,  the  first  school  connected  with  the  enter¬ 
prise  opened.  General  Fisk  upon  solicitation  allowed 
the  use  of  his  name  for  the  university,  and  Professor 
Ogden,  equipped  with  fifteen  assistant  teachers,  com¬ 
menced  his  work.  In  1870  there  were  283  pupils ;  in 
1904,  525  students.  Mr.  Cravath  was  the  president  till 
his  death ;  he  was  aided  by  a  faculty  and  officers  to  the 
number  of  29.  The  Fisk  Jubilee  Singers  became 
famous  throughout  the  world.  They  raised  by  their 
public  concerts  in  the  United  States  and  abroad  over 
$150,000  for  their  university.  The  campus  has  been 
increased  to  thirty-five  acres  and  covered  with  noble 
and  appropriate  structures. 

General  Clinton  B.  Fisk  from  his  private  estate  left 
the  institution  heir  to  a  fund  of  about  $30,000  from 
which  was  erected  its  beautiful  chapel.  The  university 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

gives  degrees  to  normal  college  and  theological  gradu¬ 
ates,  and  every  department  lias  been  sedulously  kept 
up  to  a  high  standard.  Fisk  University  has,  as  my  offi¬ 
cers  who  gave  it  aid  early  predicted,  given  to  Tennes¬ 
see  and,  in  fact,  to  other  States  a  steady  supply  of 
well-qualified  colored  teachers.  Fisk  University  has 
done  a  noble  work. 

9.  Hampton  Normal  and  Agricultural  Institute. 
Having  been  assured  of  General  S.  C.  Armstrong’s 
ability  and  fitness,  in  March,  1866,  I  placed  him,  as 
we  have  seen,  a  subassistant  in  charge  of  fourteen 
counties  of  eastern  Virginia,  with  his  headquarters 
at  Hampton.  In  1868  he  left  the  general  work  for 
the  freedmen  and  took  the  presidency  of  the  institute 
at  Hampton,  which,  in  fact,  with  the  American  Mis¬ 
sionary  Association  behind  him,  he  founded  and  stead¬ 
ily  developed  till  his  death.  Armstrong,  from  his 
experience  and  observation  among  the  natives  of 
Hawaii,  insisted  on  more  attention  to  labor  as  the  basis 
of  his  institute;  more  attention  than  he  thought  was 
given  in  our  other  schools. 

My  own  reference  of  1870  gave  this  institution  75 
students  and  6  teachers.  It  was  extended  after  a  time 
to  embrace  a  portion  of  the  Indian  youth. 

In  General  Armstrong’s  last  statements  he  said: 
“  Steadily  increasing,  its  full  growth  just  reached  is 
650  boarding  students  from  24  States  and  territories, 
averaging  eighteen  years  of  age,  136  of  them  Indians ; 
80  officers,  teachers,  and  assistants,  of  whom  half  are 
in  the  18  industrial  departments  and  shops.” 

The  last  annual  in  my  hands  since  General  Arm¬ 
strong’s  decease  is  for  1904.  The  force  of  teachers 
is  134,  the  students  1,239.  The  President,  H.  B.  Fris- 
sell  is  having  abundant  success ;  and  Virginia  is  already 

408 


Institutions  of  the  Higher  Grade 

replete  with  good  teachers  from  Hampton,  and  the  In¬ 
dian  tribes  are  benefited  by  the  400  young  people 
trained  in  academic  knowledge  and  useful  arts  who 
have  gone  out  with  bright  faces  and  hopeful  hearts. 

In  the  start  I  took  great  interest  in  Hampton  In¬ 
stitute,  and  many  times  aided  it  by  Government  con¬ 
tributions  to  its  buildings  and  to  its  permanent  en¬ 
dowment. 

10.  Howard  University  of  Washington,  D.  C.,  re¬ 
corded  in  1869  over  400  students  pursuing  academic 
and  professional  branches.  The  enrollment  for  1905-6, 
the  39th  year  from  its  inception,  was  950  students  and 
98  professors  and  other  instructors. 

The  summary  of  graduates  in  all  the  nine  depart¬ 
ments  at  the  1897  Commencement  was  1,354.  Since 
then  the  enrollment  has  at  times  exceeded  1,000  stu¬ 
dents  per  year. 

The  property  valuation,  i.  e.,  grounds,  buildings, 
and  endowment,  is  estimated  at  $1,300,000. 

11.  The  Lincoln  Institute  at  Jefferson  City,  Mo., 
was  among  the  first  schools  of  a  high  grade  un¬ 
dertaken  in  a  former  slave  State.  Like  Fisk  and 
Hampton,  it  had  much  help  from  its  earlier  students. 

I  remember  in  the  summer  of  1865  that  a  lady  of 
large  benevolence  living  in  Jefferson  City  came  all  the 
way  to  Washington,  D.  C.,  to  see  me  and  to  consult 
concerning  the  ways  and  means  of  sustaining  and  de¬ 
veloping  this  institute. 

The  Sixty-second  and  Sixty-fifth  United  States 
colored  regiments,  when  discharged  from  service  in 
1865,  contributed  generously  to  its  founding — the 
Sixty-second,  $5,000,  and  the  Sixty-fifth,  $1,379.  The 
condition  of  the  gifts  was  that  a  school  for  colored 
people  should  be  begun  in  Missouri.  In  1869  there 

409 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

were  3  instructors  and  98  students.  The  summary  for 
1903  showed  386  scholars  and  17  officers  and  instruc¬ 
tors.  The  buildings,  grounds,  and  industries  are  of 
the  best.  This  Missouri  institute  has  afforded  an  ex¬ 
ample  of  what  the  faith  and  work  of  one  good  woman 
can  accomplish. 

12.  The  Howard  Normal  School,  of  Baltimore,  just 
starting  in  1869,  has  been  replaced  by  the  Baltimore 
City  Colored  High  School.  In  the  latter  to-day  are 
21  instructors  and  350  pupils. 

13.  When  I  first  knew  the  institution  for  colored 
youth  at  Oxford,  Pa.,  it  was  called  Ashby  Institute.  As 
it  was  just  in  the  line  of  work  which  was  desired  for 
the  speedy  preparation  of  teachers,  I  gave,  as  commis¬ 
sioner,  all  possible  aid,  and  the  trustees  soon  changed 
its  name  to  Lincoln  University. 

I  attended  the  Commencement  of  this  university  in 
1867,  as  I  recall  the  visit.  The  students  on  that  occa¬ 
sion  gave  evidence  of  remarkable  advancement.  Their 
oratory  appeared  phenomenal.  From  time  to  time  I 
contributed  to  its  endowment.  It  maintains  a  good 
record,  and  had  in  1904  14  teachers  and  184  students. 

14.  The  Maryville  Norynal  at  Maryville,  Tenn., 
had  in  1869  60  pupils  and  3  instructors.  It  appears  to 
have  changed  its  name  to  Freedmen’s  Normal  Insti¬ 
tute ,  and  in  1897  it  had  14  teachers  and  243  students, 
mostly  in  the  normal  course  of  study. 

15.  The  Normal  School  at  Elizabeth  City,  N.  C., 
had  two  instructors  in  1869  and  46  students ;  in  1904  it 
was  called  State  Colored  Normal  School  with  6  in¬ 
structors  and  404  students. 

16.  The  Straight  University  at  New  Orleans,  La., 
commenced  operations  in  1869  and  gradually  devel¬ 
oped  into  a  large  and  well-favored  institution.  Its 

410 


Institutions  of  the  Higher  Grade 

students  in  attendance  numbered  at  the  Commence¬ 
ment  of  1903  765.  Officers  and  instructors  in  all  the 
five  departments  27. 

It  has  kept  up  its  work  steadily  from  year  to  year. 
Once  a  great  fire  came  and  swept  away  the  buildings, 
hut  by  the  work  of  the  students  and  the  help  of  the 
benevolent  they  were  soon  more  than  replaced.  Its  in¬ 
dustrial  department  in  the  building  trades  is  the  best 
I  have  seen.  There  is  not  room  for  agriculture  with 
its  small  grounds  in  a  great  city.  The  students,  as 
mechanics,  have  erected  several  of  the  college  build¬ 
ings,  and  their  teachers  are  especially  proud  of  the 
cabinet  work  done  by  the  young  men  and  the  fine 
needle  work  by  the  young  women. 

17.  St.  Augustine  Normal  and  Collegiate  Insti¬ 
tute ,  located  in  Raleigh,  N.  C.,  began  in  1867  and  has 
continued  its  work  thirty  years  under  the  auspices  of 
the  Episcopal  Church.  It  received  at  the  start  consid¬ 
erable  aid  from  the  Government.  In  1869  there  were 
3  instructors  and  46  students ;  in  1904  an  enroll¬ 
ment  of  360  students  and  18  teachers.  I  remember 
well  its  beginning  and  followed  it  with  much  sympathy 
and  aid. 

18.  The  Swayne  School,  and  also  the  Emerson 
School  at  Montgomery,  Ala.,  not  now  found  in  the 
United  States  school  reports,  were  absorbed  in  the 
newer  State  Normal  School  for  Colored  Students , 
which  gives  an  aggregate  enrollment  for  1903  of  416 
pupils  and  20  teachers.  General  Swayne,  my  diligent 
and  able  assistant  commissioner,  aided  these  schools  in 
every  possible  way. 

19.  The  Stanton  Normal  School,  of  Jacksonville, 
Fla.,  began  January,  1868.  A  good  building  was  dedi¬ 
cated  April  10,  1869.  General  G.  W.  Gile,  subassistant 

411 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

commissioner,  sent  me  that  day  from  Florida  this  dis¬ 
patch  :  “  The  Stanton  Normal  Institute  is  being  dedi¬ 
cated.  Thousands  assembled  send  their  greeting  to 
you  as  their  truest  advocate.”  That  year  this  Normal 
had  348  pupils  and  6  instructors. 

20.  Shaw  University  in  Raleigh,  N.  C.,  had  its 
inception  in  1865  in  the  work  and  enterprise  of  Rev. 
Dr.  H.  M.  Tupper  (who  was  an  enlisted  Christian  sol¬ 
dier  during  the  last  three  years  of  the  Civil  War).  He 
was  the  first  President.  It  is  a  large  thriving  univer- 
sitv.  In  1869  it  had  70  students  and  four  teachers.  In 
1904  the  Government  (Department  of  Education)  re¬ 
corded  499  students  and  35  instructors.  Its  depart¬ 
ments  of  medicine  and  pharmacy  place  its  medical 
work  abreast  of  Howard  University. 

21.  The  Normal  School  under  the  Friends’  con¬ 
trol  at  Warrenton,  N.  C.,  had  two  teachers  and  50 
pupils  in  1869.  The  Shiloh  Institute  appears  to  have 
replaced  it,  having  four  teachers  and  95  pupils  in  1896. 

22.  The  Normal  and  Manual  Labor  School  just  be¬ 
ginning  in  1869  at  Tougaloo,  Miss.,  soon  became  the 
Tougaloo  University ,  under  the  patronage  of  the 
American  Missionarv  Association.  I  remember  to 
have  given  this  school  an  impulse  at  the  start  by  a 
special  appropriation.  It  is  finely  located,  a  few  miles 
north  of  the  capital  of  the  State.  The  university  has 
many  departments  and  maintains  for  its  graduates  a 
high  standard  of  conduct  and  scholarship.  The  board¬ 
ing  pupils  number  over  200.  The  total  enrollment  for 
1903  is  502.  Much  stress  is  laid  upon  the  “  industrial 
work,”  including  farm  and  garden  work.  The  indus¬ 
trial  features  on  a  smaller  scale  are  like  those  of 
Hampton. 

23.  The  Talladega ,  Ala .,  Normal  School  began 

412 


Institutions  of  the  Higher  Grade 

about  the  same  time  as  that  at  Tougaloo,  under  the 
same  patronage  and  having  General  Swayne’s  active 
and  efficient  aid.  Its  name  was  soon  changed  to  Col¬ 
lege.  In  1869  there  were  two  teachers  and  70  scholars. 
In  1904  we  find  Talladega  College  in  full  and  active 
operation.  The  total  enrollment  was  596  students, 
coming  from  seven  States.  There  were  31  in  the 
body  of  officers  and  instructors. 

24.  Wayland  Seminary ,  before  mentioned,  was  al¬ 
ready  in  existence;  it  was  the  first  that  I  visited  in 
Washington  in  May,  1865.  It  stood  as  my  model  and 
object  lesson,  where  I  could  show  doubting  visitors 
from  North  and  South  the  possibility  of  educating 
negroes. 

Its  first  buildings,  altogether  too  small,  cramped 
the  work  till  the  trustees  moved  to  the  head  of  Chapin 
Street,  Meridian  Hill.  The  patrons  are  of  the  Baptist 
Home  Mission  Board,  and  the  thorough  good  results 
the  seminary  has  already  accomplished  cannot  be  over¬ 
estimated.  Its  enrollment  (1897)  gives  159  students 
and  15  officers,  and  other  instructors. 

25.  Wilber  force  University,  under  the  patronage 
of  the  African  Methodist  people,  began  in  the  fif¬ 
ties.  Bishop  D.  A.  Payne  of  the  A.  M.  E.  Church  was 
president  from  1863  to  1876.  Like  Lincoln  University , 
I  found  it  the  right  sort  of  helper  to  furnish  teachers 
as  the  freedmen’s  educational  institutions  developed, 
and  so  I  rendered  it,  as  I  did  Oberlin  College  and  for 
the  same  reason,  what  encouragement  and  pecuniary 
aid  was  in  my  power.  Wilberforce  being  near  Xenia, 
0.,  Oberlin  College  at  Oberlin,  0.,  and  Lincoln  Univer¬ 
sity  in  Pennsylvania,  neither  of  the  three  in  the  former 
slave  States,  subsequently  caused  me  some  legal  diffi¬ 
culties  on  account  of  the  Government  donations.  They 

413 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

did  before  emancipation  and  are  still  doing  noble 
work  for  the  negro  population.  The  enrollment  of 
Wilberforce  for  1906  is  400  students  with  30  on  the 
board  of  instruction.  Its  industrial  division,  including 
that  of  hospital  and  trained  nurses,  is  extensive. 

26.  There  was  one  thriving  school  of  the  grammar 
grade  in  Atlanta,  Ga.,  called  the  “  Storrs  School.” 
When  I  paid  a  visit  to  Atlanta  in  the  fall  of  1868  I 
visited  that  school.  Sunday  morning  the  Congrega¬ 
tional  Sunday  School  was  well  attended  in  the  Storrs 
schoolhouse.  Here  neatly  dressed  children  with  in¬ 
telligent  faces,  prompt,  cheerful,  and  hearty  in  all 
their  responses,  could  not  fail  to  attract  the  attention 
of  any  thinking  man.  They  indicated  and  gauged 
progress.  After  my  address  to  the  school  I  asked  if 
anyone  had  a  message  for  the  other  children  I  should 
visit.  One  little  boy  of  about  twelve  years,  wearing 
a  clean  white  jacket,  rose  and  said:  “  Tell  them  we  are 
rising.”  It  was  this  incident  that  Whittier  put  into  his 
poem  entitled  “  Howard  at  Atlanta.”  That  boy,  R.  R. 
Wright,  has  since  been  a  major  in  the  army,  a  minister 
abroad,  and  is  a  college  president. 

There  lies  before  me  at  this  writing,  over  thirty 
years  after  the  child’s  message,  a  book  entitled  “  A 
Brief  Historical  Sketch  of  Negro  Education  in  Geor¬ 
gia.”  It  is  a  faithful  and  exhaustive  sketch.  The 
author  is  that  same  Atlanta  boy  with  added  years; 
now  at  the  head  of  the  Georgia  State  Industrial  Col¬ 
lege  located  at  College,  Ga.,  and  has  15  in  his  offi¬ 
cial  and  faculty  board,  with  443  students.  Storrs 
School  itself  in  1904  continued  with  8  teachers  and  354 
scholars. 

The  foregoing  are  brief  accounts  of  twenty-six  of 
those  institutions  of  higher  grade  which  began  under 

414 


Institutions  of  the  Higher  Grade 

my  supervision  from  1865  to  1870  and  continued  for 
more  than  twenty-five  years,  having  had  a  constant  de¬ 
velopment.  The  last  year  of  my  administration  of  the 
educational  work  among  refugees  and  freedmen,  I  re¬ 
ported  70  schools,  graded  high  enough  at  least  to  edu¬ 
cate  teachers.  In  1904  there  were  open  to  the  colored 
students,  i.  e.,  especially  intended  for  them,  128  such 
institutions  and  131  public  high  schools.  Many  of  the 
original  70  have  been  absorbed  in  the  total,  often  under 
new  names. 

More  and  more  has  the  education  of  those  who  were 
once  wards  of  the  Government  taken  a  practical  turn, 
and  much  stress  has  been  put  upon  industrial  features. 
There  has  been  no  cessation  of  demand  for  well- 
trained  colored  youth,  and  no  diminution  of  interest  on 
the  part  of  the  descendants  of  the  freedmen  in  seeking 
for  that  knowledge  which  will  fit  them  for  the  common 
duties  of  life.  To  show  how  great  things  spring  from 
small  in  this  matter,  notice  the  work  of  a  single  gradu¬ 
ate  of  Hampton:  Booker  T.  Washington.  He  gradu¬ 
ated  in  the  class  of  1875;  he  taught  school  three  terms 
in  West  Virginia;  he  took  further  studies  at  Wayland 
Seminary,  Washington,  D.  C.,  and  returning  in  1880  to 
Hampton  he  taught  Indians  till  1881 ;  then,  recom¬ 
mended  by  General  Armstrong  to  found  a  State  nor¬ 
mal  school  at  Tuskegee,  Ala.,  he  was  appointed  prin¬ 
cipal.  He  commenced  the  school  with  thirty  pupils  in 
a  colored  church,  with  an  outfit  of  $2,000  and  nothing 
besides. 

Washington  wrote  in  1896:  “  Beginning  July  4, 
1881,  without  a  dollar  except  the  annual  appropriation 
($2,000),  during  the  thirteen  years  there  has  come  into 
our  treasury  $491,955.42  in  cash  from  all  sources.” 
During  the  thirteen  years  it  is  notable  that  the  stu- 

415 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

dents  have  done  labor  for  the  institution  to  the  amount 
of  $187,612.52.  The  number  of  students  enrolled  this 
year  (1907)  is  1,624.  The  property,  including  land, 
buildings,  live  stock,  and  apparatus,  is  valued  at  $838,- 
277.69;  the  endowment,  $1,238,924,  and  the  total  as¬ 
sets  have  reached  (1907)  $2,227,047.77.  The  institution 
named  Tuskegee  Normal  and  Industrial  Institute 
is  a  success.  Its  academic  and  industrial  training 
are  going  on,  hand  in  hand.  One  item  is  full  of  en¬ 
couragement:  During  the  college  year  1906-7,  $8,233 
were  paid  by  the  students  themselves  in  entrance  fees 
and  chapel  collections.  From  Mr.  Washington’s  effort 
and  example,  more  than  a  score  of  kindred  smaller 
schools  which  did  not  before  exist  have  been  set  in  mo¬ 
tion  in  Alabama  alone. 

This  retrospect  affords  me  great  satisfaction. 
Could  the  whole  school  business  be  set  forth  in  graphic 
sketches,  it  would  require  volumes  to  contain  them. 
We  who  labored  so  hard  and  so  confidently  against  un¬ 
told  opposition,  and  often  under  accusation,  suspicion, 
and  obloquy,  take  exceeding  comfort  in  seeing  our 
hopes  fully  realized — yes,  even  beyond  our  most  san¬ 
guine  predictions.  A  grand  Christian  work  has  been 
done  in  the  land  by  sanguine  souls  since  the  fetters 
were  knocked  from  the  feet  of  the  slave,  and  I  am  glad 
to  have  borne  a  part  of  the  burden. 

In  connection  with  three  institutions  of  a  higher 
grade,  early  in  April  of  1867,  as  commissioner  of  freed- 
men,  I  set  apart  a  sum  of  money  under  peculiar  cir¬ 
cumstances.  It  will  be  remembered  that  the  colored 
population  in  Washington  had  at  one  time  become  so 
numerous  and  congested  in  some  sections  of  the  city, 
that  I  had  been  obliged  to  do  something  to  relieve  the 
suffering  people  from  excessive  want.  One  measure 

416 


Institutions  of  the  Higher  Grade 

had  been  to  issue  rations  and  clothing;  another,  after 
careful  examination  of  their  condition,  to  feed  the 
most  needy,  through  work  temporarily  provided  near 
by,  and  through  tickets  to  established  soup  houses ;  but 
the  main  expedient  was  in  sending  small  parties  under 
chosen  agents,  who  were  men  or  women  of  fitness,  to 
places  where  there  were  work  and  wages,  i.  e.,  places 
already  ascertained  where  there  were  reliable  prom¬ 
ises  of  employment.  But  in  one  locality,  where  there 
was  a  large,  troublesome  crowd,  all  my  efforts  in  pro¬ 
viding  for  the  men,  women,  and  children  appeared  to 
fail.  I  was  almost  in  despair. 

One  day,  one  of  the  largest  owners  of  the  land,  or 
rather  city  lots,  situated  between  Fourteenth  and  Sev¬ 
enteenth  streets  and  north  of  K  Street,  came  to  me 
in  great  distress.  He  had  gladly  suffered  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  in  the  war  time  to  put  up  on  his  own  property, 
barracks,  hospital  structures,  and  quartermaster’s 
storehouses.  The  owners  of  the  lands  thereabouts,  in¬ 
cluding  himself,  had  bought  in  these  buildings  at  Gov¬ 
ernment  sales  after  the  war;  but  not  before  they  had 
been  seized  and  occupied  by  the  floating  colored  popu¬ 
lation  which  had  gathered  there  from  Maryland,  Vir¬ 
ginia,  and  farther  South.  A  few  industrious  negroes 
were  cultivating  small  gardens  on  the  vacant  lots,  but 
the  majority  were  of  that  crowd  of  helpless  refugees 
that  were  living  from  hand  to  mouth,  nobody  could  tell 
just  how.  The  owners  had  tried  in  vain  to  get  the  city 
to  remove  them,  for  their  land  was  now  worth  $1,500 
an  acre.  They  could  get  no  rentals  and  could  not  sell 
while  thus  encumbered.  My  visitor  said  that  he  came 
to  the  commissioner  of  freedmen  as  a  last  resort.  He 
was  a  kind  man  and  declared  that  he  had  not  the  heart 
to  force  these  wretched  people  into  the  streets  or  into 

417 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

the  lowest  resorts  and  hovels  of  the  district ;  but  he  did 
not  think  that  he  and  the  other  owners  of  that  property 
ought  to  be  required  to  bear  so  heavy  a  burden.  I  said 
to  the  gentleman  that  there  were  thousands  of  people, 
refugees  and  freedmen,  in  the  same  condition  as  those 
on  his  valuable  property,  and  I  could  not  then  see  how 
to  relieve  him;  that  I  was  charged  in  an  opposition 
press  with  “  feeding  people  in  idleness,”  and  I  must 
not  add  to  our  pauper  list.  Yet  I  answered  him,  how¬ 
ever,  that  I  knew  I  ought  to  make  an  effort  to  help  him. 

At  last,  I  proposed,  as  I  should  have  done  in  the 
field,  to  go  to  the  place  where  the  trouble  was  pressing. 
We  took  a  carriage  and  rode  to  the  encumbered 
lots  and  rough  structures.  We  called  out  all  the  men 
that  we  found  in  the  buildings.  Many  of  them  did  not 
lack  intelligence.  At  first,  I  explained  the  situation  as 
I  understood  it,  telling  the  people  who  we  were.  When 
I  said:  “  You  cannot  expect  to  stay  here  on  other  peo¬ 
ple’s  property  without  paying  rent,”  they  very  perti¬ 
nently  asked :  “  Where  shall  we  go,  and  what  shall  we 
do?” 

I  answered  them  by  asking  another  question : 
“  What  would  make  you  self-supporting?”  Several 
replied :  “  Land !  Give  us  land !  ”  They  seemed  to  re¬ 
alize  that  they  could  not  much  longer  stay  there  in  the 
heart  of  the  capital  on  that  costly  ground.  Yet  some 
were  saucy  and  some  stupid;  but  the  greater  number 
appeared  anxious  somehow  to  earn  their  way.  At  last, 
I  said :  “  Now,  if  I  could  manage  to  secure  you  a  home¬ 
stead,  say  an  acre  of  land  apiece  near  the  city,  might 
I  rely  upon  it  that  you  would  work,  earn  money,  and 
repay  my  outlay?  ”  Some  of  them  fully  understood  me 
and  earnestly  promised  to  do  so.  Others  hung  down 
their  heads  and  said  nothing.  The  above  is  a  detailed 

418 


Institutions  of  the  Higher  Grade 

account  of  that  one  community.  There  were  a  number 
of  such  crowds  at  that  time  in  Washington  or  within 
the  District  of  Columbia,  not  so  pressing,  but  where 
poverty  prevailed.  In  meditating  upon  this  condition 
of  things,  upon  the  evident  desire  of  many  of  the  poor¬ 
est  to  do  something  for  their  own  support,  and  upon 
their  entreaty  for  land,  I  concluded  that  it  would  be 
well  to  take  a  portion  of  the  “  Refugees  and  Freed- 
men’s  Fund  ”  which  had  been  accumulating  mainly 
from  the  rental  of  abandoned  property,  and  which  I 
had  already  devoted,  in  the  exercise  of  my  discretion, 
to  educational  purposes,  and  with  that  fund  purchase 
a  farm  of  large  size  as  near  Washington  as  practicable, 
and  make  it  an  object  lesson,  affording  what  relief  it 
could.  I  would  divide  it  up  into  acre  or  two-acre  lots, 
give  lumber  enough  for  a  small,  comfortable  tenement, 
and  sell  to  the  poor  freedmen  on  time,  on  a  bond  to  be 
followed  by  a  deed  in  fee  as  soon  as  the  terms  of  the 
bond  should  be  fulfilled.  The  nearness  to  Washington 
would  enable  me  to  give  the  execution  of  the  plan  my 
personal  oversight,  and  help  me  from  time  to  time  to 
secure  city  employment  and  wages  for  the  industrious. 
I  had  no  doubt  of  my  right,  under  the  laws  governing 
me,  to  use  the  funds  in  question,  except  perhaps  the 
constitutional  one  of  purchasing  land.  So  I  consulted 
the  second  comptroller  of  the  Treasury,  who  agreed 
with  me.  I  even  ventured  to  interview  Chief  Justice 
Chase  on  the  subject.  He  was  kind  and  approachable 
and  freely  advised  me  in  the  premises.  He  said: 
“  Without  doubt,  General  Howard,  you  can  use  your 
funds  in  the  way  you  propose.” 

At  last,  April  3,  1867,  I  issued  a  special  order, 
transferring  $52,000  to  S.  C.  Pomeroy,  J.  R.  Elvans, 
and  0.  0.  Howard  as  trustees;  the  amount  to  be  held 

419 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

in  trust  for  three  normal  collegiate  institutions  or  uni¬ 
versities,  embracing  the  education  of  refugees  and 
freedmen;  the  institutions  to  be  incorporated:  one  lo¬ 
cated  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  one  in  the  State  of 
Virginia,  and  the  third  in  the  State  of  North  Carolina. 
The  order  also  authorized  the  investment  of  the  money, 
so  transferred,  in  land  “  with  a  view  of  relieving  the 
immediate  necessities  of  a  class  of  poor  colored  people 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  by  rental,  by  sale,  or  in 
such  other  way  as  the  trustees  might  judge  best  for 
that  purpose;  provided  that  all  proceeds,  over  and 
above  the  necessary  expenses,  should  be  transferred 
annually  to  the  three  institutions  implied  in  the  order. 
The  proceeds  were  to  be  divided  equally  between  them. 

I  had  great  difficulty  at  that  time  to  find  anybody 
willing  to  sell,  and  was  obliged,  finally,  to  purchase 
without  being  known  in  the  matter,  and  particularly 
without  having  the  object  of  the  purchase  revealed. 
The  Barry  Farm,  375  acres,  situated  near  the  “  Gov¬ 
ernment  Hospital  for  the  Insane,”  was  thus  obtained. 
When  about  two  years  later  I  was  obliged  to  turn  over 
the  funds  to  a  successor,  Mr.  John  A.  Cole,  treasurer 
of  the  “  Barry  Farm  Fund,”  266  families  had  already 
been  provided  for.  Some  of  those  who  bought  one  acre 
or  two-acre  lots  were  fairly  well  off.  I  found  it  better 
to  have  a  few  among  the  purchasers  who  were  reason¬ 
ably  educated,  and  of  well-known  good  character  and 
repute,  to  lead  in  the  school  and  church  work,  and  so  I 
encouraged  such  to  settle  alongside  the  more  destitute. 
The  land  all  the  time  was  constantly  inquired  for  by 
working  freedmen.  It  was  taken  with  avidity,  and  the 
monthly  payments,  with  very  few  exceptions,  were 
promptly  and  regularly  made.  The  prospect  to  these 
freedmen  of  owning  a  homestead  was  a  great  stimulus 

420 


Institutions  of  the  Higher  Grade 

to  exertion.  Fortunately  there  was,  during  the  ensu¬ 
ing  year,  1868,  much  Government  work  of  grading  on 
Capitol  Hill  and  in  their  neighborhood,  so  that  they 
obtained  steady  employment  and  pay.  A  number  of 
these  awakened  people  at  the  same  period  united 
and  raised  sufficient  money  to  purchase  a  school  lot. 
The  Freedmen’s  Bureau  aided  them  to  erect  upon 
it  a  school  building  that  would  accommodate  150 
pupils. 

Everyone  who  visited  the  Barry  Farm  and  saw  the 
new  hopefulness  with  which  most  of  the  dwellers  there 
were  inspired,  could  not  fail  to  regard  the  entire  enter¬ 
prise  as  judicious  and  beneficent. 

The  amount  returned  to  the  fund  and  distributed 
to  the  three  educational  institutions,  as  provided  in  the 
original  order  before  the  time  I  turned  over  the  ac¬ 
counts  in  1869,  was  $31,178.12,  and  the  cash  besides, 
transferred  to  my  successor,  was  $10,081.41. 

The  Hon.  Edgar  Ketchum,  who  was  my  counsel 
before  a  Congressional  Committee  of  Investigation  in 
1870,  gave  to  the  gentlemen  of  the  committee  a  few 
sketches  of  homes  on  the  Barry  Farm.  Here  is  one: 
You  may  see  another  (man)  some  thirty-six  years  of 
age,  very  black,  very  strong,  very  happy,  working  on 
his  place.  He  will  welcome  you.  His  little  house  cost 
him  $90.  You  will  see  his  mother;  that  aged  “  aunty,” 
as  she  raises  herself  up  to  look  at  you,  will  tell  you  that 
she  has  had  eleven  children,  and  that  all  of  them  were 
sold  away  from  her.  She  lived  down  in  Louisiana. 
The  man  will  tell  you  that  he  is  one  of  those  children. 
He  went  down  to  Texas,  and  when  he  came  up  through 
Louisiana  and  Alabama  he  found  his  old  mother  and 
brought  her  up  here  with  him,  along  with  his  wife  and 
son.  And  there  they  live. 

421 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

“  Have  you  paid  for  your  place?  ”  you  may  ask  him, 
and  lie  will  say :  “  Don’t  owe  fifteen  cents  on  it,  sir.” 

Mr.  Ivetchum  spoke  of  the  educational  facilities: 
“  You  go  into  the  school,  and  you  see  a  boy  of  ten  years 
old  who  will  answer  any  question  in  geography  when 
the  others  fail,  though  they  may  be  older  than  he ;  he  is 
a  bright  boy,  though  of  dark  complexion.” 

He  added :  “  These  people  are  happy  there,  having 
homes  and  having  comforts.” 

Thus  the  “  Refugees  and  Freedmen’s  Fund  ”  was 
made  to  perform  a  double  part  in  furnishing  the  Barry 
Farm  homes,  and  the  accompanying  school  facilities, 
to  the  thrifty  poor,  and  also  in  endowing  in  part  with 
necessary  funds  three  collegiate  institutions. 


422 


CHAPTER  LX 


OPPOSITION  TO  BUREAU  AND  RECONSTRUCTION  WORK  BE¬ 
CAME  PERSONAL  ;  THE  CONGREGATIONAL  CHURCH 

OF  WASHINGTON 

DURING  my  Government  work  in  Washington,  D. 

C.,  from  its  commencement,  May  12,  1865,  to  its 
close,  July  3,  1874,  as  was  predicted  by  my  friends,  I 
was  obliged  to  meet  and  overcome  many  obstacles,  and 
to  encounter  a  constant  and  determined  opposition. 
Hostility  showed  itself  in  hydra-headed  forms.  The 
Freedmen’s  Bureau  itself,  regarded  by  its  best  friends 
and  promoters  as  abnormal  to  our  system  of  Govern¬ 
ment,  and  as  only  a  temporary  necessity,  was  always 
a  source  of  bitterness  and  complaint  to  all  extreme 
opponents,  North  and  South.  President  Johnson’s 
course,  after  he  had  made  up  his  mind  to  antagonize 
the  party  that  elected  him,  strengthened  all  Southern 
hostility  to  the  Bureau  work,  and  brought  into  disre¬ 
pute  its  most  faithful  officials.  Identifying  itself  with 
the  upholding  of  the  blacks  in  their  industries,  it  fa¬ 
vored  them  in  the  possession  of  land,  in  the  courts  of 
justice,  in  labor  interests,  in  having  hospitals  and  asy¬ 
lums,  and  in  planting  schools  from  the  primary  to  the 
university.  In  fact  the  Bureau  constantly  kept  stirred 
up  all  social  life  where  its  operations  touched  the  field. 
It  was  bound  to  put  its  foot  firmly  upon  every  form  of 
slavery.  It  was  obliged  to  foster  individual  independ¬ 
ence.  While  it  allowed  no  apathy  among  its  wards, 
and  thus  encouraged  industry  and  justice,  and  a  lawful 

423 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

resistance  to  wrong,  it  became  out  and  out  an  advocate 
of  negro  manhood.  That  was  its  theory;  that  was  its 
practice ;  that  was  its  sanguine  hope.  How  could  these 
Southern  white  people,  who  had  not  even  believed  in 
emancipation,  enter  heartily  into  sympathy  with  me,  a 
commissioner,  as  they  claimed,  of  a  party  of  radical 
Republicans?  How  could  the  conservatives  of  the 
North,  who  wanted  the  care  of  the  freed  people  left 
entirely  to  their  old  masters  and  to  the  Southern  State 
governments,  favor  my  theory?  To  them,  even  to 
those  who  had  confidence  in  my  integrity  and  in  the 
distinguished  officers  who  were  my  assistants,  the 
whole  system  of  dealing  seemed  wrong.  It  appeared 
to  be  cruelty  and  oppression.  Their  sympathetic 
minds  always  stopped  with  the  white  population. 
Again,  the  prospect  of  suffrage  for  the  late  slaves 
seemed  to  all  such  intolerable.  Though  my  officers  and 
myself  had  no  responsibility  for  the  gift  of  suffrage, 
yet  we  had  to  bear  no  small  part  in  its  introduction. 
We  were  at  court  the  friends  of  the  freedmen  and  had 
to  bear  that  odium.  1  think  these  simple  statements 
are  enough  to  account  for  all  the  antagonism  that  oc¬ 
curred.  An  officer  in  charge  of  any  district  where  the 
negroes  were  in  considerable  majority  met  with  the 
distrust  of  the  Southern  whites;  he  was  maligned  by 
the  local  press  the  instant  he  differed  from  the  pre¬ 
vailing  opinion  among  them ;  he  was  ostracised ;  he  was 
accused ;  if  he  favored  universal  suffrage  and  it  became 
known,  his  life  even  was  in  peril.  The  accumulations 
of  this  odium,  enveloping  me  in  their  murky  cloud,  soon 
attacked  my  reputation,  though,  of  course,  they  could 
not  affect  my  character.  I  defended  my  officers  and 
agents  and  teachers  with  all  my  heart  both  publicly 
and  privately,  and  that  fact  made  it  desirable  for  the 

424 


Opposition  to  Bureau  and  Reconstruction  Work 

hostile  forces  arrayed  against  the  Bureau  to  be  some¬ 
how  rid  of  me.  It  seemed  at  one  time  that  there  was 
no  indignity  of  language  too  harsh  or  contemptible  for 
my  foes  to  use.  My  friends  and  supporters  were,  how¬ 
ever,  equally  pronounced  and  ardent  in  my  defense, 
and  with  their  confidence  and  aid  in  Congress  and  out, 
I  carried  through  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau  to  the  natu¬ 
ral  consummation  of  its  larger  purposes  in  1869. 
About  that  time  I  met  with  troublesome  assaults 
upon  my  reputation  for  integrity  from  two  new 
sources.  One  came,  as  we  have  before  seen,  through 
the  imposing  upon  me  of  the  payment  of  the  back  pay 
and  bounties  and  prize  money  of  all  unpaid  colored 
soldiers* and  sailors,  and  especially  the  being  obliged 
by  law  to  pay  these  claimants  in  currency  and  not  in 
checks  or  drafts.  This  work  raised  up  against  all  hon¬ 
est  payers  and  payees  a  wicked  host,  whose  sole  aim 
was  greed.  They  had  accomplished  much  when  they 
could  in  any  way  corrupt  a  paymaster,  stain  the  repu¬ 
tation  of  a  disbursing  officer,  or  circumvent  an  assist¬ 
ant  commissioner.  This  trouble  I  fought  to  a  suc¬ 
cessful  issue  by  facing  every  official  accusation  and 
demanding  official  investigation  and  trial. 

Other  difficulties  arose  from  a  second  source  quite 
outside  of  Government  operations.  Being  engaged  in 
a  struggle  for  what  I  have  called  the  manhood  of  the 
black  man  in  labor,  justice,  suffrage,  and  the  schools, 
I  naturally  carried  the  same  efforts  with  me  into  the 
church,  with  which  I  was  connected.  One  day,  during 
the  fall  of  1865,  two  college  classmates  met  me  and 
asked  me  if  I  would  not  join  a  little  Congregational 
Church,  just  then  forming  in  Washington.  “  We  have 
thirteen  members,”  they  said,  “  and  you  will  make 
fourteen.  When  slavery  was  here  people  several 

425 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

times  tried  the  Congregational  form  of  church  organi¬ 
zation,  but  had  always  failed !  Now  surely,  as  slavery 
is  dead  we  can  succeed.”  This  is  the  substance  of  their 
speech.  I  assented  to  their  request.  It  was  my  own 
church,  and  I  was  glad  to  cast  in  my  lot  with  the  few 
courageous  souls  that  were  starting  the  first  bona  fide 
Congregational  Church  at  the  capital.  There  seemed 
to  be  a  general  understanding  that  there  should  now  be 
no  distinctions  in  our  church  relationship  on  account 
of  color.  Equal  rights  in  church  government,  equal 
for  all.  Rev.  Charles  B.  Boynton,  D.D.,  then  chaplain 
of  the  House  of  Representatives,  lately  from  Cincin¬ 
nati,  the  chosen  historian  of  the  navy,  a  man  of 
marked  ability,  and  one  who  had  been  distinguished  as 
an  “  old-line  abolitionist,”  was  called  as  the  first  pas¬ 
tor.  His  son,  General  H.  V.  Boynton,  of  the  volun¬ 
teer  army,  had  come  to  Washington  as  a  correspondent 
for  the  press.  He  was  in  daily  telegraphic  communi¬ 
cation  with  the  Cincinnati  Gazette,  and  corresponded 
with  other  papers.  He  then  lived  at  the  home  of  his 
parents  in  the  city. 

There  was  a  small  church  party,  after  we  had 
grown  to  fifty  or  sixty  in  number,  who  clung  very 
strongly  to  New  England  traditions  and  church  organi¬ 
zation.  This  party  often  opposed  the  pastor,  but  at 
first  with  no  noticeable  exhibition  of  feeling,  more  than 
is  manifested  in  the  usual  controversial  spirit  of  our 
people.  There  was  no  important  division  of  sentiment, 
and  I  did  not  take  sides  with  the  one  party  or  the 
other.  For  a  year  or  more  the  First  Congregational 
Church  greatly  prospered.  It  worshiped  sometimes  in 
a  hall  of  the  city  and  sometimes  in  the  hall  of  the  House 
of  Representatives.  A  large  number  of  the  members 
seriously  objected  to  the  latter  as  a  nlace  of  worship. 

426 


Opposition  to  Bureau  and  Reconstruction  Work 

It  did  not,  they  claimed,  afford  them  either  Sabbath  or 
week-day  facilities  for  meetings  such  as  they  wished. 
They  could  have  the  place  only  once  or  twice  a  week 
and  often  only  on  Sunday.  The  church  committees, 
Sunday  schools,  sociables,  and  midweek  gatherings  for 
prayer  were  all  hindered  and  so  there  arose  an  un¬ 
pleasant  controversy  about  this  matter.  The  members 
of  the  society  who  did  the  business  for  the  church  be¬ 
came  divided  for  and  against  the  pastor,  who  earnestly 
desired  to  preach  at  least  once  each  Sunday  at  the 
Capitol.  From  this  controversy  I  also  held  carefully 
aloof,  but  felt  that  there  were  growing  differences 
which  might  soon  or  late  hurt  or  spoil  our  enterprise. 
In  one  great  work  we  were  all  the  while  acting  in  har¬ 
mony.  It  was  that  of  the  proposed  erection  of  a  church 
edifice.  A  building  lot  was  secured  at  the  corner  of 
G  and  Tenth  streets,  northwest.  The  plans  for  a 
construction  which  would  cost  over  $100,000  were 
carefully  made,  a  picture  promise  of  the  new  church 
made  and  multiplied  by  handsome  woodcuts,  and  sub¬ 
scription  books  opened.  I  was  made  special  treasurer 
of  the  building  fund  on  account  of  my  reputed  ability 
to  raise  money,  and  further,  because,  in  giving  ad¬ 
dresses  in  behalf  of  the  freedmen’s  schools  and  col¬ 
leges,  I  was  visiting  different  cities  and  might  solicit 
contributions.  In  this  matter  I  was  at  first  strongly 
supported  by  all  our  members. 

Our  brotherly  letter,  dated  November  1,  1867, 
signed  by  the  pastor  himself  and  countersigned  by  the 
deacons  of  the  church  and  the  trustees  of  the  society, 
had  in  it  sentiments  such  as  I  have  named,  for  exam¬ 
ple  :  “You  are  probably  aware  of  the  efforts  which  the 
friends  of  an  untrammeled  gospel,  and  of  equal  rights 
for  all  men,  are  making  to  establish  at  the  national 

427 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

capital  a  church  which,  unhindered  by  any  social  or 
political  restraints,  shall  give  the  support  of  its  teach¬ 
ings  and  its  influence  to  those  principles  which  the 
great  party  of  freedom  and  progress  is  endeavoring 
to  establish  as  the  basis  of  our  national  policy.  .  .  . 
Such  a  church  we  are  endeavoring,  by  the  aid  of 
those  who  sympathize  with  us,  to  establish  here,  and 
we  wish  to  make  it  in  all  respects  a  worthy  represent¬ 
ative  of  the  new  spirit  of  the  land.  .  .  . 

“  Toward  the  payment  of  this  lot  and  edifice,  about 
$75,000  have  been  subscribed,  much  of  it  through  the 
personal  influence  and  efforts  of  General  Howard,  a 
member  of  our  church,  who  has  given  as  much  time  and 
attention  to  the  work  as  his  public  duties  will  permit, 
and  will  continue  to  do  so.  But  we  need  a  large  sum 
to  enable  us  to  complete  our  building,  etc.  .  .  . 

“We,  therefore,  take  the  liberty  of  sending  this 
statement  to  you  in  the  hope  that  you  may  give  it  a 
favorable  consideration.  General  Howard  is  chairman 
of  our  building  committee  and  treasurer  of  the  build¬ 
ing  fund,  and  any  amount  forwarded  to  him  will  be 
duly  accounted  for  and  applied.” 

The  letter  further  averred  that  the  intention  was 
to  make  this  church  a  national  representative  of  the 
Congregationalism  of  the  land,  an  exponent  at  the  capi¬ 
tal  of  those  evangelical  doctrines,  and  those  principles 
of  civil  and  religious  liberty,  upon  which  the  safety 
and  stability  of  the  nation  depended. 

By  personal  application  I  did  raise  a  great  deal  of 
the  church  money,  and  in  answer  to  letters  of  solicita¬ 
tion  that  I  sent  to  churches  far  and  near,  I  received 
many  small  sums  of  $5  and  $10  each,  all  of  which  were 
paid  into  the  church  treasury.  At  the  May  meetings 
of  1867,  held  in  Brooklyn,  during  one  evening,  at  the 

428 


\ 

Opposition  to  Bureau  and  Reconstruction  Work 

church  of  Henry  Ward  Beecher,  the  Congregational 
Union,  a  church  building  society,  had  its  anniversary. 
The  house  was  filled  with  people,  and  Mr.  Beecher  pre¬ 
sided.  Our  church  had  recently  solicited  pecuniary  aid 
from  the  building  society.  Our  Washington  pastor, 
Dr.  Boynton,  and  I  were  designated  to  plead  our  cause 
at  this  meeting  and  show  why  a  Congregational  enter¬ 
prise  at  the  capital  should  receive  assistance  from  this 
national  society.  Dr.  Boynton  was  well  received  by 
the  people  and  gave  an  excellent,  comprehensive  writ¬ 
ten  address.  I  followed  with  an  offhand  speech,  in 
which  I  said  in  a  half- jocose  manner,  that  I  had  been 
at  one  time  offered  as  a  personal  gift  some  United 
States  bonds  from  citizens  of  Maine ;  that  the  press  of 
Portland  and  of  Boston  had  quickly  taken  up  the  sub¬ 
ject  before  I  had  any  notification.  The  newspapers  de¬ 
clared  that  it  was  believed,  a  priori ,  that  General  How¬ 
ard  would  not  accept  such  a  present.  On  seeing  such 
words  in  print,  I  had  written  to  friends  in  Portland 
and  Boston  and  stated  that  I  agreed  with  the  published 
statement,  but  that  I  earnestly  hoped  that  the  contem¬ 
plated  bonds  and  money  would  be  given  to  the  orphans 
of  our  deceased  soldiers.  In  the  same  manner  I  had 
hitherto  declined  such  gifts.  Then,  turning  to  Mr. 
Beecher,  I  said :  “  Permit  me  to  change  my  mind  about 
taking  presents.  Generals  Grant,  Sherman,  Sheridan, 
and  Meade  have  had  theirs.  Now  I  will  take  mine.  It 
shall  be  wholly  for  the  house  of  the  Lord !  ” 

Mr.  Beecher,  full  of  happy  humor,  said:  “  Well, 
General  Howard,  you  shall  have  your  gift.”  Then  he 
told  the  people  to  pass  in  their  donations.  Some 
$5,000  for  our  building  fund  was  handed  up  from  the 
people,  in  various  sums,  while  Mr.  Beecher  amused 
them  by  his  odd  and  humorous  remarks.  Something 

429 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

was  said  or  done  that  night  that  offended  Dr.  Boynton. 
In  some  way  he  imbibed  the  idea  that  my  special 
friends  and  myself  were  endeavoring  to  build  up  a 
“  Howard  Church,”  to  which  idea  he  feelingly  objected. 
Soon  there  came  from  the  Pilgrim  Church  of  Brooklyn, 
as  an  outgrowth  of  my  address  at  Mr.  Beecher’s 
church,  $7,000  more  for  the  same  object.  At  a  later 
period  in  Washington  Dr.  Boynton  and  his  special 
friends  drew  up  a  pamphlet  of  some  thirteen  pages 
which  complained  of  this  matter  in  particular,  and  of 
other  grievances,  imaginary  or  real,  that  were  coming 
in  ever  after  that  Brooklyn  meeting  to  divide  our 
church  and  society.  The  ostensible  object  of  the 
pamphlet  was  to  put  the  sister  churches,  over  the  coun¬ 
try  right  concerning  our  Washington  enterprise.  Op¬ 
position  now  set  in  strongly  against  me  by  many  of 
our  church  members.  Many  points  of  controversy  also 
found  their  way  into  the  board  of  trustees  of  Howard 
University.  Differences  arose  between  Dr.  Boynton, 
the  first  president  of  the  university,  and  two  or  three 
of  my  associates,  among  them  my  close  and  con¬ 
fidential  friend,  General  Whittlesey.  I  defended  my 
friends  with  ardor,  and  often  said  sharp  things  impul¬ 
sively  that  worried  the  president.  He  had  a  great 
power  of  satire,  a  sort  of  rasping  sarcasm,  and  I  was 
now  and  then  treated  to  it.  I  declared  that  it  was  like 
piercing  a  man  with  a  rapier  and  then  twisting  it  in 
the  wound.  It  would  anger  me  at  times  beyond  self- 
control,  and  my  replies  were  sometimes  such  as 
caused  him  to  send  friends  to  me  to  insist  on  apology 
and  reparation,  which  surely  was  never  withheld.  Yet 
the  doctor’s  frame  of  mind  was  such  that  he  would 
hinder  the  trustees  in  the  midst  of  important  construc¬ 
tions  by  withholding  his  approval. 

430 


Opposition  to  Bureau  and  Reconstruction  Work 

In  church  matters,  during  the  summer  of  1867,  the 
First  Congregational  Society  was  holding  all  its  ses¬ 
sions  in  Metzerott  Hall,  while  our  church  edifice  was  in 
process  of  construction.  The  pastor  was  away  on  a 
short  vacation.  Seeing  one  Sunday  that  our  Sunday 
school  was  very  small,  I  addressed  the  teachers  and 
children  just  before  the  closing  exercise  and  said  that 
there  were  plenty  of  children  outside  that  had  no  Sun¬ 
day  school,  and  urged  the  scholars  to  make  an  effort  to 
fill  up  our  room  with  those  who  had  no  such  school  ad¬ 
vantages.  My  last  remark  was  in  keeping  with  my 
own  constant  wish.  It  was  to  this  effect :  “  I  will  give 
a  present  to  five  (I  believe  that  was  the  number)  who 
will  bring  in  the  most  new  scholars,  and  they  need  not 
look  at  the  color  of  the  eyes,  hair,  or  skin.” 

The  next  Sunday  plenty  of  scholars  came  trooping 
in,  and  among  them  many  colored  pupils.  This  action, 
to  my  astonishment,  displeased  very  many  of  our 
church  members,  both  men  and  women.  Our  pastor 
was  informed.  He  returned  at  once  from  his  vacation, 
took  sides  against  my  action  publicly  and  privately, 
though  the  colored  children  already  there  were  suf¬ 
fered  to  remain  in  the  Sunday  school.  The  church 
society  proved  itself  now  to  be  divided,  and  those  op¬ 
posed  to  Hr.  Boynton  were  uniting  in  action.  How¬ 
ever,  even  yet,  I  deprecated  these  dividing  tendencies 
and  tried  to  check  them. 

Later  in  the  year,  I  was  called  to  St.  Louis,  Mo., 
and  when  there  in  the  Congregational  churches 
pleaded  for  help  to  our  building  fund,  restating,  as 
our  early  letters  had  declared,  that  our  new  Congre¬ 
gational  body  would  be  careful  to  make  no  distinctions 
on  account  of  race  or  color.  That  was  one  of  our  rea¬ 
sons  for  the  establishment  of  our  church  in  Washing- 

431 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

ton.  When  I  reached  home,  I  found  that  the  pastor 
had  seen  fit  completely  to  reverse  the  wheels,  and  to 
make  public  contradiction  to  this  sentiment  in  a  re¬ 
markable  sermon.  Like  Moses  in  Egypt,  he  insisted 
that  the  colored  people  should  refuse  to  remain  with 
the  Egyptians.  He  praised  their  advancement,  but  de¬ 
clared  for  separation.  That  was  his  own  opinion,  and 
though  grieved  about  it  I  did  nothing  immediately  be¬ 
cause  our  pulpit  was  always  free.  The  newspapers, 
however,  religious  and  secular,  took  up  the  sermon, 
and  showed  our  plain  inconsistency.  We  professed  the 
utmost  catholicity  in  raising  money,  but  were  behind 
all  other  churches  in  our  practice.  For  did  not  Christ 
live  and  die  for  all  men?  Then  the  pastor  and  his  im¬ 
mediate  friends,  being  vexed  by  this  public  criticism, 
which  was  in  their  suspicions  imputed  to  my  influence, 
at  a  church  meeting  from  which  a  large  number  of 
those  holding  to  the  original  views  were  absent, 
adopted  a  series  of  resolutions;  these  fully  endorsed 
the  statements  and  theories  of  that  strange  sermon. 
They  were  passed,  and  spread  upon  the  church  record. 
That  sermon  there  defined  the  attitude  of  our  body 
toward  the  freedmen.  It  seemed  to  me  like  a  wall  of 
partition  between  races.  I  drew  up  a  brief  protest, 
making  it  as  strong  as  I  could  word  it.  Over  fifty  of 
the  male  members  of  our  church  and  congregation 
united  with  me  by  signing  the  document.  From  that 
time  a  veritable  controversy  was  upon  us,  and  our 
troubles  soon  became  known  to  all  the  kindred 
churches  of  our  country.  Our  Northern  contributors 
almost  ceased  their  gifts.  It  resulted  finally  in  our 
calling  an  ex  parte  council  to  judge  between  the  oppos¬ 
ing  parties. 

When  the  sessions  of  the  council  meeting  in  Wash- 

432 


Opposition  to  Bureau  and  Reconstruction  Work 

ington  were  had  and  the  discussions  of  the  members 
of  the  council,  which  was  gathered  from  many  North¬ 
ern  Congregational  churches,  were  going  on  and  be¬ 
came  animated,  the  son  of  the  pastor,  General  Boyn¬ 
ton,  the  newspaper  correspondent,  naturally  sided 
with  his  father  and  his  party,  and  tilled  his  columns 
with  what  I  deemed  biased  accounts  of  the  proceed¬ 
ings.  The  excitement  ran  high. 

One  or  two  incidents  will  show  how  remarkable  had 
been  our  heated  debates  and  how  divergent  were  our 
views.  At  a  communion  service  held  in  a  hall  on  Fifth 
street,  opposite  the  city  square,  Dr.  Boynton  made 
some  preliminary  remarks  in  which  he  said  that  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  teachings  of  our  Lord  in  Chapter  xviii 
of  Matthew,  he  was  conscious  of  being  ready  for  this 
solemn  ordinance  and  implied  as  much  for  those  who 
were  on  his  side ;  but  he  averred  that  there  were  those 
present  who  had  improper  feeling  toward  him  and 
those  who  believed  as  he  did.  He  was  sure  that  they 
ought  not  to  partake  of  the  communion  in  such  a  frame 
of  mind.  That  was  the  burden  of  his  address.  It  was 
an  extraordinary  thing  for  me  to  do  at  a  communion, 
but  I  arose  and  entered  at  once  upon  the  defense  of 
myself  and  my  friends  so  charged.  I  was  claiming  for 
us  love  to  God  and  our  neighbor,  when  suddenly  the 
pastor  asked  significantly :  “  General  Howard,  do  you 
believe  in  amalgamation!  ”  Instantly  it  occurred  to 
me  that  there  were  two  meanings  of  that  word  “  amal¬ 
gamation  ” ;  one  was  the  union  of  whites  and  blacks  in 
church  and  school  relation ;  the  other  the  union  in  mar¬ 
riage.  Whichever  Dr.  Boynton  meant,  I  decided  to 
make  answer  to  the  latter.  I  had  never  hitherto  advo¬ 
cated  intermarriage ;  but  a  case  illustrated  my  thought 
on  that  subject.  I  said:  “A  gentleman  in  Virginia, 

433 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

soon  after  graduating  from  West  Point,  had  left  the 
army,  married,  and  settled  on  a  plantation.  After  per¬ 
haps  one  year  his  young  wife  died.  He  did  not  marry 
again,  but  had  one  of  his  slave  women  as  his  house¬ 
keeper,  and  by  her  he  had  several  children.  This 
woman  had  recently  come  to  me  for  protection  against 
the  gentleman’s  severity  of  discipline ;  as  she  was  leav¬ 
ing  she  said :  ‘  Do  not  hurt  him,  for  I  love  him ;  only 
keep  him  from  whipping  me !  ’  Now,”  I  added,  “  before 
God  that  man  and  that  woman  are  man  and  wife.” 
Here  I  closed.  Dr.  Boynton  cried  out:  “Yes,  and  I 
would  marry  them.”  The  communion,  after  that,  pro¬ 
ceeded  without  further  interruption. 

On  another  occasion  after  the  communion,  in  the 
parlors  of  our  new  church  building,  among  those  who 
presented  themselves  for  uniting  with  the  church  were 
a  colored  woman  and  two  colored  men ;  the  men  were 
graduates  of  Oberlin  College  and  one  of  them  had  been 
a  captain  of  volunteers  in  our  army  during  the  war. 
No  objection  could  be  made  to  them  by  the  examining 
committee;  but  during  the  session  of  the  committee, 
the  pastor  put  to  the  men  the  same  question  he  did  to 
me:  “Do  you  believe  in  amalgamation?”  As  they 
were  already  married  to  women  of  their  own  race,  they 
understood  very  naturally  that  the  pastor  objected  to 
the  union  of  races  in  the  church,  and  they  therefore 
withdrew  without  becoming  members  of  our  body. 

A  more  general  council  in  process  of  time  was  se¬ 
cured  and  assembled  in  Washington,  holding  their  ses¬ 
sions  in  our  new  church  edifice.  It  was  composed  of 
our  ablest  clergymen  and  laymen,  drawn  from  some 
twelve  or  fifteen  Northern  and  Western  churches. 
Before  that  body  were  brought  all  our  points  of  differ¬ 
ence,  and  notwithstanding  the  able  manner  in  which 

434 


Opposition  to  Bureau  and  Reconstruction  Work 

matters  were  met  by  Dr.  Boynton  and  liis  followers, 
the  council  decided  that,  in  the  principal  subjects  at 
issue,  my  friends  and  myself  were  right.  My  protest 
was  sustained.  General  Boynton,  who  seemed  at  that 
time  to  control  the  correspondence  with  many  papers 
besides  the  Cincinnati  Gazette ,  in  his  dispatches  did 
not  let  me  rest.  His  father,  followed  by  the  majority 
of  our  members,  now  left  the  First  Congregational 
Church  and  united  with  a  Presbyterian  Church,  of 
which  he  became  the  pastor.  He  resigned,  too,  from 
the  presidency  of  Howard  University,  and  from  that 
time  on  my  official  intercourse  with  him  ceased.  But 
the  woes  that  follow  such  divisions  continued. 

As  I  was  returning  from  an  International  Confer¬ 
ence  of  the  Young  Men’s  Christian  Association,  held 
in  Detroit,  Mich.,  in  June,  1869,  and  passing  through 
Ohio,  I  had  been  conversing  with  Mr.  Locke,  whose 
nom  de  plume  was  “  Petroleum  V.  Nasby.”  As  he  was 
glancing  over  a  paper,  sitting  just  behind  me,  he  spoke 
up  with  evident  surprise :  “  How  is  this,  General?  ”  He 
then  showed  me  one  of  General  Boynton’s  Washington 
communications  of  about  a  column  in  length,  which  at¬ 
tacked  me  severely.  It  was  one  of  a  series  of  articles 
which  accused  me  in  my  Government  administration  of 
every  sort  of  delinquency.  As  it  appeared  in  the  Cin¬ 
cinnati  Gazette ,  and  as  I  was  near  at  hand,  I  wrote  to 
the  editor  and  asked  the  privilege  of  replying  to  the 
allegations  as  soon  as  I  should  arrive  in  Washington. 
But  I  did  not  receive  an  answer  from  the  paper,  and 
as  the  same  sort  of  charges  were  published  from  day 
to  day  elsewhere,  in  Pittsburg,  Penn. ;  St.  Louis,  Mo. ; 
Cleveland,  0.,  and  in  Boston,  with  an  occasional  col¬ 
umn  of  similar  import  in  the  New  York  Press ,  all  of 
them  often  inserting  reasonable  statements  in  rebuttal, 

435 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

I  decided  to  wait  and  confine  my  replies  officially  made 
to  charges  from  official  sources.  When  at  last,  after  I 
had  formally  and  strongly  recommended  the  closing  out 
of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau,  except  the  educational  divi¬ 
sion,  and  that  this  be  transferred  to  the  Department  of 
Education  with  the  residue  of  the  Bureau  money,  then 
estimated  at  $600,000,  the  subject  came  up  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  for  consideration.  Fer¬ 
nando  Wood,  representative  from  New  York,  was  re¬ 
ported  in  the  Congressional  Globe  and  Daily  Chronicle 
to  have  asserted  that  this  was  only  a  scheme  of  Gen¬ 
eral  Howard  to  make  away  with  $600,000  more  of  the 
public  money.  It  appeared  to  me  incredible  that  he,  a 
representative  in  Congress,  could  have  made  the  re¬ 
mark,  so  I  wrote  him  immediately  the  following  letter : 

War  Department,  Bureau  Refugees,  Freedmen  and 

Abandoned  Lands, 

Washington  City,  April  1,  1870. 

Dear  Sir:  By  this  morning’s  Chronicle  you  were  made  to 
intimate  that  I  had  grown  rich  from  this  Bureau,  and  that  the 
Bill  proposed  on  education  was  to  enable  me  to  control  $600,000 
more.  I  do  not  think  you  can  have  said  it,  because  if  you 
know  my  financial  condition  you  will  know  that  I  have  a  large 
family,  a  small  property,  and  considerable  indebtedness,  and 
as  the  Bill  proposed  to  take  from  me  the  $600,000  and  put 
it  into  the  Bureau  of  Education,  I  cannot  think  you  made  the 
remark.  I  have  discharged  the  trust  committed  to  me  with 
fidelity,  and  as  you  yourself  would  say  if  you  would  give  every 
transaction  the  most  thorough  examination. 

“Very  respectfully,  your  obedient  servant, 

O.  O.  Howard,  Commissioner,  etc.,  etc . 
Honorable  Fernando  Wood. 

Mr.  Wood,  taking  advantage  of  my  letter,  asked 
the  privilege  by  a  unanimous  consent  of  the  House  to 

436 


Opposition  to  Bureau  and  Reconstruction  Work 

make  a  personal  explanation.  Obtaining  the  consent, 
he  first  sent  my  letter  to  be  read  at  the  clerk’s  desk; 
then,  answering  it  briefly,  submitted  fifteen  formulated 
charges.  Though  he  might  possibly  have  been  checked, 
as  he  was  going  farther  than  a  “  personal  explana¬ 
tion  ”  called  for,  yet  my  friends — and  I  had  a  great 
many  on  the  floor  of  the  House — insisted  on  my  having 
an  opportunity  to  answer,  and  so  did  not  rest  until  Mr. 
Wood’s  charges,  which  were  substantially  those  that 
had  appeared  in  the  Cincinnati  Gazette ,  had  been  sent 
to  the  Committee  on  Education  and  Labor.  Furnished 
with  able  counsel  on  both  sides,  Mr.  Wood  and  I 
brought  my  case  before  this  committee  of  Congress 
having  a  membership  of  ten  in  number.  The  Hon.  Sam¬ 
uel  M.  Arnell,  of  Tennessee,  was  chairman.  The  com¬ 
mittee  met  behind  closed  doors  in  a  commodious  room 
in  the  basement  of  the  House  side  of  the  Capitol, 
nearly  every  day  for  three  months,  and  had  brought 
before  them  hundreds  of  witnesses,  giving,  as  I  much 
desired,  every  opportunity  to  the  prosecutors  to  bring 
to  light  their  accusations. 

The  committee  by  a  vote  of  8  to  2  sustained  me 
and  closed  a  faithful  review  of  the  fifteen  charges  by 
these  remarks : 

“  The  committee  has  thought  it  proper  to  deal,  pri¬ 
marily,  with  the  charges  referred  to  them  by  the 
House.  But  it  would  be  unjust  to  the  gallant  officer 
and  faithful  public  servant  who  has  so  honorably 
passed  the  severe  ordeal  to  which  he  has  been  sub¬ 
jected,  daily,  during  the  last  three  months,  to  close  this 
report  with  a  simple  verdict  of  acquittal. 

“  No  approximately  correct  history  of  civilization 
can  ever  be  written  which  does  not  throw  out  in  bold 
relief,  as  one  of  the  great  landmarks  of  political  and 

437 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

social  progress,  the  organization  and  administration  of 
the  Freedmen’s  Bureau. 

“  The  great  labor  to  be  performed,  its  unremitting 
and  exhausting  anxieties,  the  wide  field  of  operations, 
the  obstacles  that  interposed  and  were  to  be  overcome, 
the  breadth  of  mind  and  sympathy  of  heart  necessary 
to  the  proper  accomplishment  of  the  task,  are  facts 
which  must  be  considered  in  forming  a  just  estimate  of 
General  Howard’s  services. 

“  The  colossal  proportions  of  the  work  of  the  Bu¬ 
reau  will  be  seen  at  a  glance.  Its  operations  extended 
over  500,000  square  miles  of  territory  devastated  by 
the  greatest  war  of  modern  times.  More  than  4,000,- 
000  of  its  people  sunk  in  the  lowest  depths  of  ignorance 
by  two  centuries  of  slavery,  and  suddenly  set  free  amid 
the  fierce  animosities  of  war — free  but  poor,  helpless, 
and  starving.  Here,  truly,  was  a  most  appalling  condi¬ 
tion  of  things.  Not  only  the  destiny  of  the  liberated 
race  was  in  the  balance,  but  the  life  of  the  nation  itself 
depended  upon  the  correct  solution  of  this  intricate 
problem.  It  was  a  great  practical  question  that  had  to 
be  met. 

“  The  letter  to  Mr.  Whiting,  solicitor  of  the  War 
Department,  setting  forth  the  details  of  the  scheme, 
has  been  cited  in  another  connection.  His  plan  was 
substantially  adopted  by  Congress,  save  in  regard  to 
the  suggestion  that  the  head  of  the  work  ought  to  hold 
a  Cabinet  position,  to  which  the  dignity  and  magnitude 
of  his  duty  certainly  entitled  him.  Then  arose  the 
practical  question — who  among  the  tried,  wise,  and  hu¬ 
mane  men  of  the  nation  should  be  trusted  with  the  exe¬ 
cution  of  this  work?  As  has  been  before  stated,  Major 
General  Oliver  O.  Howard  was  appointed  commis¬ 
sioner  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau  in  1865.  The  duties 

438 


Opposition  to  Bureau  and  Reconstruction  Work 

assigned  liim  were  novel  and  perplexing.  He  liad  no 
landmarks  to  guide  him.  The  experience  of  France 
and  England  was  even  discouraging.  The  emancipa¬ 
tion  problem  in  Russia  was,  in  many  important  re¬ 
spects,  different  from  ours,  and  he  could  get  no  hints 
from  that  quarter  to  serve  him.  The  failures  of  the 
past  were  before  him,  and  as  he  thought  of  the  causes 
of  them,  he  could  get  but  little  consolation  from  those 
sources,  so  he  addressed  himself  boldly  to  the  work 
before  him  from  a  new  standpoint.  The  impulses  of 
freedom  and  progress  were  controlling  the  national 
mind ;  and,  trusting  to  those  impulses,  he  went  to  work 
on  the  principle  that  only  6  ideas  save  races/  If  the 
negroes  were  to  be  saved  and  were  to  benefit  civiliza¬ 
tion,  it  was  to  be  only  by  making  them  self-relying  and 
responsible  citizens. 

“  His  first  attempts  therefore  were  to  prevent  pau¬ 
perism,  to  make  the  freedmen  and  their  families  under¬ 
stand  that  charity  should  be  considered  odious  by 
them,  that  they  should  work  to  support  themselves  and 
families,  and  that  they  should  be  educated. 

“  The  Bureau,  at  the  close  of  the  war,  was  the  rep¬ 
resentative  at  the  South  of  the  best  ideas  of  the  coun¬ 
try,  promoting  peace  and  ordaining  justice.  What  it 
accomplished  in  this  respect  exceeded  the  expectations 
of  its  most  sanguine  advocates. 

“  Let  it  be  further  remembered,  to  the  credit  of  the 
colored  race,  and  of  the  inspiration  that  prompted 
General  Howard’s  plans,  that  not  one  insurrection,  not 
one  murder,  has  occurred  on  the  part  of  the  negroes  in 
revenge  for  two  centuries  of  slavery.  Yet  the  two 
races  have  lived  side  by  side,  in  the  same  neighbor¬ 
hoods,  looking  into  each  other’s  eyes,  while  this  won¬ 
derful  transformation  has  been  going  on.  What  a  dif- 

439 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

ferent  spectacle  presents  itself  on  the  blood-drenched 
sands  of  the  Antilles  under  French  rule.  Ours  was  the 
substitution  of  moral  for  brute  force. 

“  It  may  be  well  to  state,  in  this  connection,  that  it 
was  in  a  freedmen’s  court  that  colored  persons  were 
first  admitted  to  testify  in  any  of  the  late  slave  States. 
To-day  all  the  courts  are  open  to  them,  and  a  colored 
senator  sits  at  the  other  end  of  the  Capitol  and  assists 
in  making  laws  for  those  courts. 

“  Not  less  potent  has  been  the  influence  of  the  Bu¬ 
reau  on  the  labor  question.  At  the  close  of  the  war 
famine  looked  the  South  in  the  face.  There  was  a  cry 
for  bread  throughout  the  Southern  country.  It  was 
sneeringly  said  by  the  enemies  of  emancipation  that 
the  negro  would  not  labor.  Satisfied  by  the  Bureau 
that  contracts  would  be  enforced,  that  justice  would  be 
administered,  with  words  of  encouragement  whispered 
in  his  ear,  the  negro  went  to  work.  The  battle-plowed, 
trampled  fields  of  the  South  yielded  a  wealth  of  pro¬ 
duction  that  seemed  not  the  result  of  human  labor,  but 
as  if  i  earth  had  again  grown  quick  with  God’s  creating 
breath.’  The  crops  at  the  South  have  been  larger  pro¬ 
portionately  since  the  war  than  at  any  previous  date. 

“  An  article  by  Sidney  Andrews,  in  the  February 
number  of  Old  and  Neiv,  makes  the  following  concise 
and  truthful  statement  of  the  workings  of  the  Bureau: 

“  ‘  Of  the  thousand  things  that  the  Bureau  has  done 
no  balance  sheet  can  ever  be  made.  How  it  helped  the 
ministries  of  the  church,  saved  the  blacks  from  robbery 
and  persecution,  enforced  respect  for  the  negro’s 
rights,  instructed  all  the  people  in  the  meaning  of  the 
law,  threw  itself  against  the  stronghold  of  intemper¬ 
ance,  settled  neighborhood  quarrels,  brought  about 
amicable  relations  between  employer  and  employed, 

440 


Opposition  to  Bureau  and  Reconstruction  Work 

comforted  the  sorrowful,  raised  up  the  downhearted, 
corrected  bad  habits  among  whites  and  blacks,  restored 
order,  sustained  contracts  for  work,  compelled  atten¬ 
tion  to  the  statute  books,  collected  claims,  furthered 
local  educational  movements,  gave  sanctity  to  the  mar¬ 
riage  relation,  dignified  labor,  strengthened  men  and 
women  in  good  resolutions,  rooted  out  old  prejudices, 
ennobled  the  home,  assisted  the  freedmen  to  become 
land  owners,  brought  offenders  to  justice,  broke  up 
bands  of  outlaws,  overturned  the  class  rule  of  igno¬ 
rance,  led  bitter  hearts  into  brighter  ways,  shamed 
strong  hearts  into  charity  and  forgiveness,  promul¬ 
gated  the  new  doctrine  of  equal  rights,  destroyed  the 
seeds  of  mistrust  and  antagonism,  cheered  the  de¬ 
spondent,  set  idlers  at  work,  aided  in  the  reorganiza¬ 
tion  of  society,  carried  the  light  of  the  North  into  dark 
places  of  the  South,  steadied  the  negro  in  his  struggle 
with  novel  ideas,  inculcated  kindly  feeling,  checked  the . 
passion  of  whites  and  blacks,  opened  the  blind  eyes  of 
judges  and  jurors,  taught  the  gospel  of  forbearance, 
encouraged  human  sympathy,  distributed  the  generous 
charities  of  the  benevolent,  upheld  loyalty,  assisted  in 
creating  a  sentiment  of  nationality — how  it  did  all  this 
and  hundredfold  more,  who  shall  ever  tell  ?  What  pen 
shall  ever  record  ?  ’ 

“  These  are  warm  and  generous  words.  They  are 
eloquent.  But  the  facts  that  they  state  are  still  more 
eloquent. 

“  Still  it  is  asked,  ‘  Has  the  Bureau  been  a  success  ?  ’ 
Success !  The  world  can  point  to  nothing  like  it  in  all 
the  history  of  emancipation.  No  thirteen  millions  of 
dollars  were  ever  more  wisely  spent;  yet  from  the  be¬ 
ginning  this  scheme  has  encountered  the  bitterest  op¬ 
position  and  the  most  unrelenting  hate.  Scoffed  at 

441 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

like  a  thing  of  shame,  often  struck  and  sorely  wounded, 
sometimes  in  the  house  of  its  friends,  apologized  for 
rather  than  defended;  yet  with  God  on  its  side,  the 
Freedmen’s  Bureau  has  triumphed ;  civilization  has  re¬ 
ceived  a  new  impulse,  and  the  friends  of  humanity 
may  well  rejoice.  The  Bureau  work  is  being  rapidly 
brought  to  a  close,  and  its  accomplishments  will  enter 
into  history,  while  the  unfounded  accusations  brought 
against  it  will  be  forgotten.  .  .  . 

“  In  conclusion,  the  committee  find  on  the  whole 
case  that  the  charges  are  utterly  groundless  and  cause¬ 
less  ;  that  the  commissioner  has  been  a  devoted,  honest, 
and  able  public  servant.  The  committee  find  that  his 
great  trust  has  been  performed  wisely,  disinterestedly, 
economically,  and  most  successfully.  If  there  be  any¬ 
thing  in  the  conduct  of  affairs  of  the  Bureau  which 
would  excite  a  suspicion,  even  in  the  breast  of  partisan 
or  personal  hate,  it  is  owing  to  the  fact  that  General 
Howard,  conscious  of  his  own  purity,  intent  on  his 
great  work,  has  never  stopped  to  think  of  the  appear¬ 
ances  which  men  of  less  conscious  integrity  much  more 
carefully  regard. 

“  Who  is  the  inventor  or  instigator  of  these  charges 
it  is  not  the  purpose  of  the  committee  to  inquire.  Mr. 
Wood,  as  has  already  been  stated,  disclaims  all  per¬ 
sonal  responsibility  for  them.  The  evidence  which  he 
adduced  was  not  evidence  tending  to  establish  the  ac¬ 
cusation,  but  was,  nearly  all  of  it,  merely  experimental 
• — an  inquiry  by  the  person  calling  the  witness  into  the 
details  of  transactions  of  which  he  seemed  to  have 
neither  accurate  knowledge  nor  information.  While  the 
examination  was  going  on,  with  closed  doors,  under  a 
pledge  of  secrecy  imposed  on  the  committee,  counsel 
and  parties,  incorrect  statements,  purporting  to  be  re- 

442 


Opposition  to  Bureau  and  Reconstruction  Work 

ports  of  the  testimony,  were  spread  extensively 
through  the  country,  most  injurious  to  General  How¬ 
ard,  and  utterly  without  support  in  the  evidence.  It 
is  not  in  the  power  of  the  committee  or  of  the  House 
to  repair  this  injustice  or  to  compensate  this  faithful 
public  officer  for  the  indignity,  anxiety,  and  expense 
which  his  defense  has  entailed  upon  him.  All  that  is 
in  our  power  is  to  recommend  to  the  House  the  pas¬ 
sage  of  the  following  resolution,  as  expressing  our 
opinion  of  the  whole  case,  and  an  act  of  justice  to  a 
faithful  and  distinguished  public  servant : 

“  1  Resolved ,  That  the  policy  pursued  by  the  United 
States  toward  four  and  a  half  million  of  its  people  sud¬ 
denly  enfranchised  by  the  events  of  a  great  Civil  War, 
in  seeking  to  provide  for  them  education,  to  render 
them  independent  and  self-supporting,  and  in  extend¬ 
ing  to  them  civil  and  political  equality,  is  a  source  of 
just  national  pride ;  and  that  the  House  hereby  acquits 
Major  General  Oliver  0.  Howard  of  the  groundless 
and  causeless  charges  lately  preferred  against  him, 
and  does  hereby  declare  and  record  its  judgment,  that 
in  successfully  organizing  and  administering  with 
fidelity,  integrity,  and  ability  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau, 
which  has  contributed  so  much  to  the  accomplishment 
of  the  first  two  of  these  great  ends,  he  is  deserving  of 
the  gratitude  of  the  American  people.’  ” 

March  2,  1871,  the  House  passed  this  resolution  by 
a  large  majority.  I  was  often  subsequently  assured 
by  men  in  opposition  to  the  Republican  party,  that  it 
was  because  the  first  part  of  the  resolution  claimed 
so  much  credit  for  Republican  action,  that  they  voted 
no;  but  that  so  far  as  I  was  concerned  the  resolution 
was  all  right. 

The  minority  of  two  of  the  committee  reported  two 

443 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

resolutions,  recommending  that  I  be  court-martialed 
and  that  the  Secretary  of  War  be  directed  to  take  steps 
to  recover  money  disbursed  in  aid  of  “  churches,  re¬ 
ligious  associations  and  educational  institutions  not  in 
pursuance  of  law.”  The  adoption  of  the  majority 
report  eliminated  this  one.  This  minority  utterly  ig¬ 
nored  the  Acts  of  Congress  which  had  empowered  me 
as  commissioner  to  cooperate  with  all  the  bodies  and 
associations  referred  to  by  them  in  the  work  of  the 
support  and  education  of  refugees  and  freedmen.  It 
had  become  a  political  party  matter,  and  one  of  the 
minority  when  asked  to  join  with  the  majority,  said 
frankly :  “  I  cannot  leave  my  party.” 

Surely,  I  was  gratified  at  the  result,  though  so  long 
delayed.  I  had  been  brought  under  severe  charges  and 
bitter  accusation  before  the  House  of  Eepresentatives. 
After  a  long  and  tedious  investigation,  the  House 
awarded  me,  instead  of  censure,  a  happily  worded  vote 
of  confidence  and  thanks. 


444 


CHAPTER  LXI 


COURT  OF  INQUIRY;  PRESIDENT  OF  HOWARD  UNIVERSITY 

T^ARLY  in  1872  I  had  a  brief  change  from  my  Bu- 
^  rean  work,  though  no  relief  from  its  responsi¬ 
bilities.  Under  the  last  Bureau  Act,  that  of  August  4, 
1868,  I  was  engaged  in  finding  and  paying  the  colored 
soldiers  and  sailors  in  different  States  who  had  not  as 
yet  been  reached  by  our  limited  agencies.  I  had  been 
ardently  pushing  forward  the  educational  division,  and 
was  also  performing  the  administrative  functions  of 
Howard  University,  which  now  had  in  operation  eight 
departments.  The  Young  Men’s  Christian  Association 
of  Washington,  very  active  under  the  efficient  secre¬ 
taryship  of  Mr.  George  A.  Hall,  had  for  some  years 
kept  me  as  its  president,  and  our  Congregational 
Church  under  its  new  and  able  pastor,  Rev.  J.  E.  Ran¬ 
kin,  D.D.,  still  claimed  some  of  my  time.  Indeed,  there 
was  as  yet  no  leisure;  and  all  friends  believed  that  I 
was  laden  about  as  heavily  as  one  man  ought  to  be, 
when  one  day  I  received  a  note  from  the  Secretary  of 
the  Interior,  Columbus  Delano,  inviting  me  to  call  at 
his  office.  Not  a  little  curious  at  such  an  unusual  invi¬ 
tation,  I  went  at  once.  He  asked  me  as  soon  as  we 
were  face  to  face  if  I  were  willing  to  go  to  Arizona  and 
New  Mexico  as  a  “  Peace  Commissioner.”  General 
Grant’s  administration,  he  said,  in  pursuance  of  his 
peace  policy  with  the  Indians  had  succeeded  in  making 

445 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

peace  with  every  tribe  that  was  on  the  war  path  except 
one;  that  one  was  the  Apache  tribe  of  the  notorious 
chieftain  Cochise. 

Finding  that  my  selection  was  at  the  wish  of  the 
President,  I  accepted,  and  left  Washington  March  7th, 
leaving  General  Whittlesey  as  acting  commissioner. 
The  Indian  work  given  me  was  very  absorbing,  so  that 
for  the  year  1872,  after  the  first  two  months,  I  was 
practically  detached  from  my  Bureau.1  During  the 
spring  a  strong  desire  appeared  on  the  part  of  the  poli¬ 
ticians  in  control,  many  of  whom  had  been  stanch 
friends  of  the  freedmen,  to  eliminate  the  Bureau  com¬ 
pletely  from  the  future  political  issues  of  the  day.  On 
questions  concerning  which  they,  who  were  members 
of  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives,  would 
naturally  have  consulted  me,  they  advised  during  my 
absence  with  the  Secretary  of  War.  He  advised  them, 
and  particularly  the  appropriation  committee  of  the 
House,  to  make  at  once  an  ostensible  close  of  the 
Freedmen’s  Bureau,  putting  directly  into  his  office  the 
bounty  division  and  that  part  of  the  medical  and  hos¬ 
pital  department  which  could  not  in  the  interest  of 
humanity  be  shut  off. 

Though  General  Grant  himself  had  sent  me  to  Ari¬ 
zona  and  New  Mexico,  endued  with  extraordinary 
powers,  still  in  military  circles  great  irritation  natu¬ 
rally  sprang  from  my  going  in  the  capacity  of  a  peace 
commissioner,  and  the  action  which  I  was  obliged  to 
take  to  accomplish  the  desired  results  found  severe 

1 1  successfully  adjusted  the  differences  among  the  Indians  and  whites 
in  Arizona  and  New  Mexico;  and  with  only  my  aide,  Captain  Sladen,  and  a 
guide,  Jeffords,  I  succeeded  in  reaching  Cochise  in  his  own  stronghold 
amid  the  Dragoon  Mountains,  Arizona.  We  there  concluded  a  lasting 
peace.  For  detailed  accounts  see  “My  Life  and  Experience  Among  Our 
Hostile  Indians.”  O.  O.  H. 


446 


Court  of  Inquiry 

criticism  and  complaint  not  only  among  frontiersmen 
and  their  newspapers,  but  among  army  officers  of  dif¬ 
ferent  ranks  in  bivouac  and  garrison,  and  at  district, 
department,  and  even  military  division  headquarters. 

General  Sheridan  from  Chicago,  commanding  the 
large  central  military  division,  had  had  his  jurisdic¬ 
tion  extended  to  New  Mexico.  On  receiving  such 
criticisms  and  complaints,  he  gave  me  such  comment 
in  his  indorsements  that  I  remonstrated.  He  hap¬ 
pened  to  be  in  Washington  soon  after  my  return  from 
Arizona  in  November,  and  I  had  an  interview  with 
him.  I  said :  “  General  Sheridan,  did  you  never  know 
that  General  Grant  himself  sent  me  to  the  Southwest 
to  do  just  what  I  did?  ” 

He  answered :  “  No,  Howard,  no !  Did  Grant  really 
do  that  ?  ”  I  replied :  “  Indeed  he  did,  and  I  never  in 
the  whole  expedition  went  beyond  my  instructions.” 

Sheridan  then  assured  me  that  he  would  try  to  rec¬ 
tify  the  mischief  that  he  and  others  had  done  me  by 
a  too  hasty  judgment  and  action.  From  the  criticism 
and  complaint  that  thus  came  into  the  AVar  Depart¬ 
ment,  and  from  the  personal  hostility  of  AV.  W.  Bel¬ 
knap,  then  Secretary  of  AVar,  I  was  made  to  feel  that 
the  department  was  against  me,  and  that  during  my 
absence  there  had  been  unfriendly  planning  and  action 
against  my  late  Bureau. 

The  legislative  action,  however,  was  just  what  I  de¬ 
sired,  except  that  I  would  have  preferred  to  close  out 
my  own  Bureau  and  not  have  another  do  it  for  me  in 
an  unfriendly  manner  in  my  absence.  The  legislation 
was  embraced  in  an  Appropriation  Act  (June  10, 
1872).  After  giving  one  hundred  thousand  dollars 
($100,000)  for  the  expenses  of  the  payment  of  boun¬ 
ties,  it  was  provided :  “  That  the  Bureau  of  Befugees, 

447 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

Freedmen,  and  Abandoned  Lands  shall  be  discon¬ 
tinued  from  and  after  June  30,  1872,  and  that  all 
agents,  clerks,  and  other  employees  then  on  duty  shall 
be  discharged,  except  such  as  may  be  retained  by  the 
Secretary  of  War  for  the  purposes  of  this  proviso; 
and  all  Acts  and  parts  of  Acts  pertaining  to  the  collec¬ 
tion  and  payment  of  bounties,  or  other  moneys  due  to 
colored  soldiers,  sailors,  and  marines,  or  their  heirs, 
shall  remain  in  force  until  otherwise  ordered  by  Con¬ 
gress,  the  same  to  be  carried  into  effect  by  the  Secre¬ 
tary  of  War,  who  may  employ  such  clerical  force  as 
may  be  necessary  for  the  purpose.” 

The  Freedmen’s  Hospital  and  Asylum  at  Washing¬ 
ton,  by  the  same  Act,  given  to  sustain  them  an  appro¬ 
priation  of  seventy-four  thousand  dollars  ($74,000), 
was  placed  directly  under  the  Secretary  of  War,  re¬ 
quiring  him  to  make  all  estimates  and  pass  upon  all 
accounts,  and  be  responsible  to  the  Treasury  of  the 
United  States  for  all  expenditures. 

At  the  time  of  the  transfer  from  my  office  at  How¬ 
ard  University  to  the  War  Department  of  all  books, 
documents,  and  papers,  my  entire  office  establishment 
was  at  the  university,  where  I  held  by  rental  part  of 
its  main  structure.  The  distance  to  carry  the  records 
was  two  miles.  The  majority  of  my  clerks  were  edu¬ 
cated  colored  men,  or  bright  colored  youths,  attending 
the  night  courses  of  university  study,  and  were  sud¬ 
denly  discharged — this  created  consternation.  Confu¬ 
sion  was  produced  in  the  transfer  itself.  Belknap’s 
assistant  adjutant  general  sent  wagons,  messengers, 
laborers,  and  clerks  to  take  away  the  archives.  My 
few  clerks  were  disappointed  and  irritated,  having 
been  suddenly  cut  off  from  all  employment,  and  it 
seemed  to  them  treated  as  if  in  disgrace,  though  they 

448 


Court  of  Inquiry 

were  as  able  and  upright  as  their  successors.  Books 
and  papers  were  taken  with  little  regard  to  order,  and 
tumbled  into  the  wagons.  Important  papers  were 
picked  up  en  route  to  the  new  office,  and  record  books 
were  found  on  the  stairs  of  the  university  and  on  the 
grounds. 

After  the  apparent  close  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau 
and  after  the  completion  of  my  Indian  peace  expedi¬ 
tion,  I  was  still  detained  at  Washington.  Events 
which  rapidly  followed  each  other  show  that  what  was 
called  the  “  confusion  of  records  ”  of  the  late  Bureau 
was  the  actual  cause  of  my  detention.  General  Vin¬ 
cent,  who  was  placed  over  the  records,  and  who  under¬ 
took  to  systematize  a  part  for  complete  files,  and  to 
rectify  others  for  further  use,  advised  Mr.  Belknap  to 
work  out  through  General  Howard  not  only  the  rectifi¬ 
cation  of  the  records  in  his  office,  but  the  gathering  of 
all  missing  books  and  accounts  from  Maryland  to 
Texas.  I  was,  notwithstanding  this  demand  upon  me, 
denied  access  to  my  own  books.  The  officer  in  charge 
constantly  wrote  me  asking  explanation  of  apparent 
discrepancies  to  be  found  only  in  papers,  many  of 
which  his  clerks  had  thought  of  no  value  and  had 
burned  in  the  basement  of  the  War  Department  be¬ 
fore  they  were  properly  arranged  after  the  transfer. 
Others,  though  ordered  to  Washington,  had  not  yet 
come  from  inaccessible  points  of  operation  in  the 
South. 

This  lengthy  correspondence  began  as  soon  as  I  re¬ 
turned  from  the  Southwest.  Out  of  that  correspond¬ 
ence  came  misconceptions ;  some  reasonable  on  their 
face  and  some  imaginary.  Finally,  as  the  friction  be¬ 
came  intense,  formal  accusations  in  two  letters  of  the 
Secretary  of  War  were  addressed  to  the  Speaker  of  the 

449 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

House  of  Representatives,  dated  respectively  Decem¬ 
ber  4,  1873,  and  January  5,  1874. 

As  soon  as  the  first  letter  appeared  (which  it  did 
before  I  saw  it  elsewhere)  in  the  public  journals,  and 
before  its  receipt  by  the  Speaker,  I  wrote  to  Generals 
Grant  and  Sherman,  and  to  Secretary  Belknap,  and  de¬ 
manded  a  hearing  of  some  kind  for  all  the  charges, 
before  any  court  or  tribunal  the  Government  might 
elect.  The  secretary’s  letters  suggested  that  I  might 
be  court-martialed  were  it  not  for  the  statute  of  limi¬ 
tation;  so  I  at  once  waived  that  as  far  as  I  could.  I 
did  not  wish,  however,  a  court  of  inquiry  of  three  offi¬ 
cers  selected  by  the  secretary,  who  was  hostile  to  the 
negro  and  unfriendly  to  me.  After  much  delay  and 
discussion  in  Congress,  a  special  court  of  inquiry  of 
seven  army  officers  of  high  rank  was  created  by  law. 
General  Grant,  the  President,  appointed  the  court.  It 
first  assembled  March  3,  1874,  in  rooms  of  a  dwelling 
house,  No.  1816  F  Street.  After  two  adjournments, 
the  members  of  the  court,  seven  in  number,  were  all 
present,  to  wit : 

1st.  General  William  T.  Sherman,  United  States  Army,  Pres¬ 
ident  of  the  Court. 

2d.  Major  General  Irvin  McDowell,  United  States  Army. 

3d.  Brigadier  General  M.  C.  Meigs,  Quartermaster  General. 

4th.  Brigadier  General  John  Pope,  United  States  Army. 

5th.  Colonel  George  W.  Getty,  Third  United  States  Artillery. 

6th.  Colonel  J.  J.  Reynolds,  Third  Cavalry. 

7th.  Colonel  N.  A.  Miles,  Fifth  Infantry. 

Major  Asa  Bird  Gardner  was  appointed  judge  ad¬ 
vocate  of  the  court  and,  as  prosecutor,  represented  the 
Secretary  of  War. 

The  charges  were  in  substance  that  General  How- 

450 


Court  of  Inquiry 

ard  had  failed  to  establish  and  enforce  a  proper  system 
of  payments  to  colored  soldiers,  involving  great  loss ; 
that  he  was  responsible  for  some  minor  defalcations  of 
officers  who  had  already  been  punished;  that  he  had 
misapplied  public  funds ;  that  he  had  transferred  con¬ 
fused  and  incomplete  records,  and  failed  to  report  the 
state  of  the  same. 

The  investigation  of  all  the  items  of  charge  and 
complaint  went  on  from  day  to  day  till  the  forty- 
second  session  of  the  court  had  been  had,  May  9,  1874. 
After  the  review  and  advice  of  the  judge  advocate  gen¬ 
eral  upon  all  the  proceedings  and  findings,  General 
Grant  affixed  his  approval  July  2,  1874.  It  lacked  but 
one  day  of  four  months  that  I  was  under  the  most 
careful  and  searching  investigation,  and  I  am  proud 
to  insert  the  findings  of  this  celebrated  court  of  in¬ 
quiry  as  follows: 

First. — The  court  is  of  the  opinion  that,  in  the  matters  re¬ 
ferred  to  it  for  investigation,  General  O.  O.  Howard  has  not,  with 
knowledge  and  intent,  violated  any  law  of  Congress,  regulation 
of  the  army,  or  rule  of  morals,  and  that  he  is  “not  guilty, ” 
upon  legal,  technical,  or  moral  responsibility,  in  any  of  the 
offenses  charged. 

Second . — The  court  finds  that  General  Howard,  when  charged 
by  his  superiors  with  a  great  work  arising  out  of  the  war,  de¬ 
voted  his  whole  time  and  all  his  faculties  and  energies  to  the 
execution  of  that  work.  In  this  he  employed  hundreds  of  as¬ 
sistants  and  dealt  with  hundreds  of  thousands  of  men.  In 
regard  to  the  expenditure  of  money,  it  appears  that  his  ac¬ 
counts  are  closed  and  settled  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  ac¬ 
counting  officers  of  the  Treasury,  whose  decisions  in  such  mat¬ 
ters  are  by  law  the  highest  authority,  “final  and  conclusive 
upon  the  Executive  branch  of  the  Government  and  subject  to 
revision  only  by  Congress  or  the  proper  courts.” 

Third. — In  relation  to  the  investment  of  certain  public  mon- 

451 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

eys  in  United  States  bonds,  while  the  court  does  not  hold  that 
such  investments  were  justified  by  existing  laws,  yet  in  view  of 
the  fact  that  these  investments  were  made  only  under  the 
opinion  and  advice  of  the  Second  Comptroller,  the  court  at¬ 
taches  no  blame  to  General  Howard  therefor.  The  investment 
of  portions  of  a  similar  fund,  viz.:  the  “irregular  bounty  fund,” 
had  previously  been  authorized  by  express  law. 

Fourth. — Some  questions  arising  out  of  the  sudden  termina¬ 
tion  of  the  operations  and  organization  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bu¬ 
reau  yet  remain  to  be  settled,  with  those  who  were  formerly 
subordinates  and  assistants  to  the  Commissioner.  Some  few 
erroneous  payments  made  by  honest  subordinates,  and  some 
others  made,  or  not  made,  by  officers  now  dead  or  cashiered  for 
fraud,  remain  to  be  adjusted.  The  adjustment  of  these  mat¬ 
ters  belongs  properly  to  the  successors  of  General  Howard  in 
the  Bureau;  and  in  these  matters,  as  in  all  others  brought  to 
the  notice  of  the  court  during  thirty-seven  days  of  careful  and 
laborious  investigation,  the  court  finds  that  General  Oliver  O. 
Howard  did  his  whole  duty,  and  believes  that  he  deserves  well 
of  his  country. 

(Signed)  W.  T.  Sherman, 
General,  President  of  the  Court . 

The  finding  of  the  Court  of  Inquiry  is  approved. 

July  2,  1874.  (Signed)  U.  S.  Grant. 

As  the  primary  objects  for  which  the  Freedmen’s 
Bureau  was  created,  to  wit,  the  relief  of  the  destitute, 
the  reorganization  of  labor  upon  a  free  basis,  the  se¬ 
curing  to  the  freedmen  the  rights  and  privileges  of 
free  men  in  the  courts  and  in  the  schools,  had  been 
gradually  accomplished,  until  at  last  the  schools  alone 
remained  under  my  charge,  I  gave  my  time  more  and 
more  to  Howard  University.  Almost  from  its  in¬ 
ception  I  regarded  that  institution  as  of  the  first  im¬ 
portance  as  an  object  lesson — a  complete  exhibit  in  its 
organization  and  in  its  operation  of  the  higher  grade 

452 


Court  of  Inquiry 

of  school  work.  Here  I  tried  to  foster  its  life  in  tlie 
social  as  well  as  in  the  literary  scale,  recognizing  as  far 
as  it  could  be  done  the  manhood  of  the  negro  scholar, 
teacher,  and  professor.  My  own  efforts  were  reason¬ 
ably  successful  in  securing — first,  the  careful  super¬ 
vision  and  management  of  the  estate  purchased  so  as 
to  give  a  fair  endowment  fund;  second,  the  securing 
of  a  large  subscription  for  the  professorships;  third, 
the  providing  of  professors,  teachers,  and  frugal  pro¬ 
fessional  students  with  houses,  or  tenements,  building 
them  within  the  university  reserve,  or  constructing 
them  for  individuals  on  outside  lots.  I  built  a  house 
for  myself  near  the  university  on  a  lot  I  purchased 
from  it  in  order  to  enhance  the  value  of  the  property 
the  university  had  for  sale;  but  owing  to  the  hard 
times  which  followed,  I  had  some  troublesome  financial 
reverses  before  I  left  Washington. 

I  had  previously  acted  in  one  capacity  and  another 
for  the  institution  till  I  was  chosen  president  April  5, 
1869.  I  accepted  the  office  with  the  express  condition 
that  its  demands  should  not  interfere  with  my  military 
duties.  After  that,  I  habitually  performed  every  day 
the  executive  functions  of  the  institution.  I  was  ex- 
officio  chairman  of  the  executive  committee,  chairman 
of  the  hoard  of  trustees,  and  of  each  separate  faculty. 
The  morning  exercises  at  the  chapel  were  opened  by 
me  when  in  Washington,  and  in  some  instances  during 
the  temporary  absence  of  a  professor  I  taught  the 
classes.  I  also  prepared  and  delivered  to  the  students 
lectures  on  conduct,  discipline,  and  other  subjects. 
This  office  I  held  for  five  years  and  four  months. 

In  the  summer  of  1873,  the  trustees,  independently 
of  me,  fixed  upon  their  own  method  of  settlement  of 
money  accounts,  very  properly  desiring  to  return  to 

453 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

me,  as  far  as  possible,  all  extraordinary  outlays,  and 
to  compensate  me  for  my  time  and  labor  expended  for 
the  institution  over  and  above  that  reckoned  as  offi¬ 
cially  due  to  the  Government. 

In  the  statement  which  they  prepared,  called  “  Gen¬ 
eral  Howard’s  Account,”  of  date  July  4,  1873,  they 
put  down  receipts  and  expenditures  and  attached  a 
summary  which  exhibited  on  the  debtor  side  $17,583, 
and  on  the  credit  side  $16,906.18,  showing  that  I  had 
received  a  balance  of  only  $676.82  in  money. 

The  trustees  then  remarked :  “  The  amount  General 
Howard  has  actually  received  over  and  above  what  he 
has  given  to  the  university  and  to  destitute  students 
for  seven  years’  service  is  six  hundred  and  seventy-six 
dollars  and  eighty- two  cents  ($676.82). 

“  If  we  recall  the  investment  he  made  to  enhance 
the  realty  of  the  university,  the  amount  of  rental  in 
the  way  of  interest  has  been  $2,000  yearly  in  excess  of 
the  rental  of  his  former  city  house,  making  in  five 
years  of  occupancy  $10,000.  For  this  interest  there  is 
no  return  except  in  the  increased  value  of  his  lot,  viz. : 
$4,434,  estimated;  deducting  this  from  $10,000  gives 
$5,566,  a  forced  expenditure  for  the  benefit  of  the  uni¬ 
versity.  This  shows  that  he  virtually  contributed 
more  than  he  has  received  in  the  sum  of  $4,889.18.” 

Later,  in  1883,  by  the  help  of  a  friend  who  desired 
to  be  anonymous  I  paid  a  subscription  of  $10,000  for 
the  Law  Department,  and  have  since  been  the  channel 
of  aid  to  the  amount  of  $1,500  more.  I  have  been  thus 
particular  because  it  has  been  claimed  by  some  critics 
that  I  made  money  out  of  my  connection  with  the  uni¬ 
versity.  I  did  not,  however.  The  day  I  took  my  de¬ 
parture  from  Washington,  I  was  not  nearly  so  well  off 
pecuniarily  as  when  I  went  there  in  1865. 

454 


Court  of  Inquiry 

One  very  plausible  criticism  which  for  years  was 
reiterated  in  the  newspapers,  was,  in  substance,  that 
General  Howard  ought  not  to  have  received  any  com¬ 
pensation,  remuneration,  or  salary  from  Howard  Uni¬ 
versity,  while  he  was  an  agent  or  president,  because 
the  Government  so  largely  helped  that  institution. 
The  answer  I  made  to  my  own  conscience  was  that  the 
circumstances  were  unusual,  and  that  my  course  was 
necessary,  legal,  and  right.  That  course  after  long  in¬ 
vestigation  was  approved  by  my  Government  and  by 
the  board  of  trustees  of  the  university. 

I  took  some  compensation  and  remuneration  be¬ 
cause  I  was  lawfully  entitled  to  it,  and  as  the  success 
of  the  institution  was  very  near  to  my  heart  I  spent 
money  for  it  in  ways  which  I  thought  would  do  the  uni¬ 
versity  the  most  good. 

The  fight  for  my  reputation  and  honorable  name 
having  been  finished  by  the  action  of  the  President  in 
approval  of  the  proceedings  of  the  court,  I  was  as¬ 
signed  to  the  command  of  the  Department  of  the  Co¬ 
lumbia.  I  gladly  left  Washington,  after  nine  years  of 
incessant  labor,  with  frequent  and  painful  struggles, 
through  all  of  which  the  comfort  of  a  wise  and  devoted 
wife,  and  a  strong  belief  in  the  goodness  of  God,  were 
my  principal  reliance.  At  times  there  was  a  seeming 
success  of  the  machinations  of  wicked  men,  whose  per¬ 
sonal  hatred  or  bad  politics  would  make  me  a  sacrifice 
to  their  venomous  persistency.  But  to-day  they  were ; 
to-morrow  they  were  not ! 


455 


/ 


PART  IV 


COMMANDING  MILITARY  DEPARTMENTS 
INDIAN  CAMPAIGNS 
LITERARY  WORK 

FOUNDING  LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  UNIVERSITY 


CHAPTER  LXII 


LIFE  IN  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  1866  TO  1874;  ASSIGNED  TO 
DUTY  IN  REGULAR  ARMY  AS  COMMANDER,  DEPART¬ 
MENT  OF  THE  COLUMBIA 

/^\NE  day  in  "Washington,  a  gentleman  introduced 
me  to  Madame  Schoolcraft.  She  was  the  grand¬ 
daughter  of  an  Indian  chief  and  the  widow  of  Henry 
R.  Schoolcraft,  the  Indian  historian  who  has  left  such 
graphic  accounts  of  Indian  tribes.  She  was  appar¬ 
ently  about  sixty  years  of  age,  a  tall,  handsome,  stately 
woman  with  exceedingly  dark  and  brilliant  eyes  which 
seemed  to  pierce  one  through  and  through  when  she 
was  talking.  She  had  considerable  funds  in  her  hands 
left  her  by  her  husband,  and  was  induced  by  a  real 
estate  agent  to  invest  a  large  part  of  them  in  Washing¬ 
ton  city  property:  stores,  houses,  and  house  lots  in 
various  parts  of  the  city. 

It  was  just  after  the  wonderful  changes  that  had 
taken  place  through  the  vote  of  the  city  (at  that  time 
the  citizens  of  Washington  had  a  vote  granted  to  them 
by  Congress).  Under  the  leadership  of  the  energetic 
and  enterprising  Alexander  R.  Shepherd,  sometimes 
called  “  Boss  Shepherd,”  the  improvements  were  so  ex¬ 
tensive  throughout  the  city  that  property  rose  every¬ 
where  in  value. 

Madame  Schoolcraft  came  to  me  very  much  trou¬ 
bled  about  her  property.  She  said :  “  I  am  too  old  to 
take  care  of  so  many  pieces.”  After  looking  into  the 
subject,  I  thought  that  I  could  aid  her  by  an  exchange 

459 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

of  equities.  Each  piece  of  her  property  was  more  or 
less  mortgaged. 

I  owned  my  home  and  more  than  an  acre  of  ground. 
I  consented  to  take  over  her  property,  and  her  attor¬ 
neys,  thinking  that  my  home  and  grounds  would  be 
easier  for  her  to  care  for  and  fully  equivalent  in  value, 
made  the  exchange. 

For  a  while  there  was  a  great  boom  in  real  estate 
and  I  was  very  hopeful  of  being  able  to  properly  dis¬ 
pose  of  my  possessions  and  lay  by  something  for  my 
family,  but  the  tables  very  soon  turned ;  the  legislation 
of  Congress  went  against  the  city  of  Washington,  and 
except  in  certain  favored  localities  the  price  of  prop¬ 
erty  went  down  with  wonderful  rapidity.  For  exam¬ 
ple,  one  of  the  stores  that  had  come  into  my  possession 
was  at  the  time  of  my  purchase  valued  for  taxation  at 
$18,000,  and  had  on  it  a  mortgage  of  $4,000.  The  next 
valuation  was  $12,000;  the  next  following  was  $6,000, 
and  being  at  last  forced  to  sell  I  disposed  of  it  at  $5,- 
000,  clearing  hardly  $1,000.  The  houses  took  a  like 
plunge  and  I  was  glad  to  dispose  of  most  of  them  for 
the  mortgages  that  were  upon  them.  I  did,  however, 
pay  one  or  two  of  my  obligations  out  of  this  property, 
but  the  result  was  that  I  made  nothing  from  the  ex¬ 
change;  in  fact,  I  would  have  been  thrown  into  bank¬ 
ruptcy  but  for  some  lots  I  owned  on  Meridian  Hill. 
These  I  sold  to  very  fair  advantage,  receiving  enough 
to  clear  me  of  nearly  all  my  pressing  obligations — obli¬ 
gations  incurred  by  my  official  work. 

This  was  the  condition  of  my  estate  when  I  was 
ordered  away  from  Washington  in  1874.  I  had  been, 
as  is  evident,  put  to  very  great  expense  by  the  inves¬ 
tigations  into  the  affairs  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau.  I 
had  to  pay  for  my  own  counsel  in  every  case,  so  I  did 

460 


i 


Life  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  1866  to  1874 

not  have  much  left  when  I  received  the  order  from  the 
War  Department  to  proceed  to  the  North  Pacific  Coast 
and  take  command  of  the  Department  of  the  Columbia. 

A  friend  at  that  time  loaned  me  $7,000,  with  no 
other  security  than  my  personal  note,  so  that  I  was 
able  to  pay  the  balance  of  my  subscriptions  to  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.,  and  some  dues  to  Howard  University,  and 
defray  the  expenses  of  my  son  at  Yale  College,  and  of 
my  daughter  at  Vassar,  besides  taking  my  wife  and  the 
other  five  children  across  the  continent. 

I  had  some  unimproved  lots  in  Buffalo,  N.  Y.  This 
property  brought  me  later  $5,000  in  my  settlement 
with  the  friend  who  had  so  kindly  accommodated  me 
before  setting  out  for  my  new  station. 

The  journey  across  the  continent  was  very  pleasant 
and  memorable.  I  had  two  aids,  Captain  J.  A.  Sladen 
and  Captain  Melville  C.  Wilkinson.  Captain  Sladen 
had  three  children,  Captain  Wilkinson  two,  and  Mrs. 
Howard  and  myself  five,  so  that  we  took  quite  complete 
possession  of  a  railway  car.  People  would  come  along 
and  take  a  look  at  the  car  filled  with  children,  and  if 
they  liked  children  would  come  in  and  enjoy  their  gay- 
ety,  and  play  with  them ;  but  others  would  say :  “  Don’t 
go  in  there,  that  car  is  full  of  young  ones.”  Those  who 
did  come  in  were  happy  and  helpful,  and  I  hardly  think 
that  a  more  jovial  company  ever  made  the  journey. 
It  took  us  seven  days  from  Washington  to  San  Fran¬ 
cisco. 

Here  at  San  Francisco  we  had  our  first  experience 
with  the  depreciated  “  greenbacks.”  The  traders 
would  take  hard  money  only.  For  $100  we  received  in 
exchange  but  $60  in  gold  or  silver. 

Soon  after  this  we  went  by  steamer  to  Oregon — 
passing  through  the  Golden  Gate.  We  accomplished 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

the  voyage  in  four  days.  During  this  sea  trip  we  were 
fortunate  to  make  several  new  and  valuable  acquaint¬ 
ances.  I  recall  Hon.  Henry  Failing,  of  Portland,  Ore., 
among  them.  Some  of  these  ever  after  remained  con¬ 
stant  friends.  They  warned  us  against  the  country  we 
were  going  to — how  rough  it  was;  how  extensive  the 
fir  forests,  and  how  interminable  the  rains.  They  told 
us  the  people  there  were  usually  called  “  web-feet,” 
because  of  the  abundant  wTater. 

As  everybody  knows,  Astoria  is  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Columbia  River;  Portland,  120  miles  from  Astoria, 
and  some  ten  miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  Willamette. 

Coming  to  Portland  in  August,  we  found  the  coun¬ 
try  not  only  clear  of  storms,  but  very  dry  and  dusty. 

The  city  had  then  about  8,000  people.  Nearly  all 
the  streets  and  walks  were  paved  with  plank. 

Since  then  Portland  has  been  extended  in  every  di¬ 
rection  up  and  down  the  Willamette  River,  across  to 
East  Portland,  and  beyond,  encroaching  upon  the 
great  fir  forests  until  there  are  few  left;  the  city  now 
ascends  the  hills  westward  till  the  extensive  wilderness 
has  almost  vanished.  There  are  to-day  (1907)  100,000 
inhabitants  within  the  city  limits.  Portland  has  every 
modern  improvement  in  electric  cars,  trolley  lines,  rail¬ 
ways  passing  in  and  out,  and  pavements  of  stone.  The 
new  churches,  bank  buildings,  hotels,  and  splendid 
houses  with  beautiful  grounds  give  to  Portland,  with 
the  Willamette  at  its  feet,  a  picturesque  appearance 
equal  to  that  of  any  city  of  its  size  in  the  Union. 

Of  course,  the  hills  still  remain,  each  crowned  with 
a  few  trees.  From  any  one  of  these  heights  the  view 
of  the  lofty,  snow-capped  mountain  peaks  is  superb. 

Portland  people  were  wise  in  centrally  locating 
their  United  States  post  office,  the  courthouses,  the 

462 


Life  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  1866  to  1874 

jail,  and  customhouse;  and  they  also  had  the  good 
sense  to  reserve  very  commodious  parks  which  are 
beautiful  and  a  delight  to  the  people. 

What  was  called  the  0.  S.  N.  Co.  (the  Oregon 
Steam  Navigation  Company)  was  at  the  time  of  my 
arrival  a  monopoly.  It  held  the  transportation  of  the 
upper  Columbia  in  its  hands,  and  could  regulate  the 
prices  not  only  of  grain  for  hundreds  of  miles  inland, 
but  also  of  passenger  transportation. 

In  one  of  the  buildings  owned  by  this  company  the 
headquarters  of  the  Department  of  the  Columbia  was 
located.  I  assumed  command  August  25,  1874,  reliev¬ 
ing  General  Jeff.  C.  Davis. 

It  took  several  days  to  find  a  house,  hut  at  last  we 
secured  a  small  cottage  on  Washington  Street,  and 
there  made  ourselves  very  comfortable  until  the  next 
spring,  when  we  found  a  larger  house  on  Tenth  and 
Morrison  streets,  vacated  by  my  adjutant  general  H. 
Clay  Wood.  This  house  we  enlarged,  with  the  permis¬ 
sion  of  the  owner,  by  building  a  corner  tower;  its 
grounds  adjoined  those  of  D.  B.  Thompson,  who  had 
been  governor  of  the  State,  and  were  opposite  to  the 
home  of  Harvey  Scott,  who  was  at  that  time  collector 
of  the  port,  and  has  since  been  for  years  the  editor  of 
The  Oregonian. 

The  military  department  of  the  Columbia  was  very 
extensive.  It  took  in  all  of  Washington,  Oregon,  a  part 
of  Idaho,  and  included  within  its  limits  the  Territory 
of  Alaska.  About  1,000  troops  were  then  stationed  at 
different  posts  of  the  command.  The  central  station 
was  Vancouver  Barracks,  only  six  miles  from  Portland 
but  west  of  the  Columbia  River. 

My  first  official  act  was  to  close  out  General  Davis’s 
Modoc  Campaign  by  sending  a  remnant,  those  still 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

held  as  prisoners,  to  the  Indian  Territory.  My  aid-de- 
camp,  Captain  M.  C.  Wilkinson,  who  had  done  a  like 
service  the  preceding  fall,  was  detailed  to  have  charge 
of  the  party.  At  first  he  treated  the  Indians  with 
some  severity,  handcuffing  the  leaders,  but  soon  finding 
them  obedient  and  well  disposed,  he  took  off  the  hand¬ 
cuffs  and  fully  trusted  them.  His  expedition  was  suc¬ 
cessful  and  gave  another  instance  where  kindness  con¬ 
quers  and  wins. 

It  was  not  long  after  our  arrival  before  I  counted 
up  some  twenty  Indian  tribes  within  the  limits  of  my 
department,  not  including  those  in  Alaska.  I  discov¬ 
ered  further  that  I  had  inherited  quite  a  number  of 
Indian  troubles  which  unless  well  handled  would  lead 
to  war;  so  I  began  very  soon  to  visit  the  different 
tribes  of  Indians  in  order  to  look  into  their  condition 
and  consider  carefully  their  causes  of  restlessness. 

A  very  remarkable  instance  of  hardship  to  a  boy, 
and  my  later  personal  experience  with  him,  I  recall 
whenever  I  think  of  my  journey  from  Washington  to 
Oregon.  I  had  hardly  taken  my  Bureau  headquarters 
in  Washington  at  the  corner  of  Nineteenth  and  I 
streets,  when  there  came  into  my  office  a  young  man 
apparently  about  twenty  years  of  age.  He  had  a  nap¬ 
kin  about  his  head.  He  was  straight,  slender,  of  good 
build  and  soldierly  bearing.  He  said :  “  General  How¬ 
ard,  I  have  been  trying  in  vain  to  get  employment.  I 
have  to  support  my  father  and  his  family.  My  father, 
partially  insane,  struck  me  this  morning,  and  I  am  in 
great  distress  both  from  this  fact  and  from  the  want 
of  means  to  give  the  family  bread.” 

I  said:  “  Where  are  you  from?” 

He  answered:  “  Richmond,  Va.” 

At  that  time  I  was  forbidden  to  employ  anyone  who 

464 


Life  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  1866  to  1874 

could  not  take  the  oath  of  allegiance,  and,  further,  all 
my  places  were  filled.  I  told  him  this.  He  did  not 
know  about  the  oath,  but  supposed  he  could  take  it,  as 
he  had  not  fought  against  the  Government.  He  begged 
so  hard  for  employment  that  my  compassion  overcame 
all  reason  and  caused  me  to  say :  “  Go  in  there  with 
the  clerks  and  do  what  you  can  and  I  will  try  in  some 
way  to  pay  you.” 

He  wrote  a  good  hand  and  was  an  excellent  clerk, 
was  devoted  to  duty  and  made  no  complaint  with  re¬ 
gard  to  hours  or  wages,  at  all  times  doing  his  best. 

Two  years  before  the  close  of  the  Freedmen’s  Bureau 
I  secured  him  a  situation  under  General  Leggett,  one  of 
my  division  commanders  who  was  then  at  the  head  of 
the  land  office  in  the  Department  of  the  Interior.  Leg¬ 
gett  gave  him  a  good  clerkship  and  for  a  time  he  was 
doing  well.  A  Union  soldier  in  that  department  who 
had  lost  one  of  his  feet  in  the  war,  for  some  reason 
took  a  great  dislike  to  him  and  began  to  worry  him 
with  petty  persecutions.  Cudlipp,  for  that  was  the 
young  man’s  name,  had  married,  and  now  had  one  child 
a  little  over  three  years  of  age.  With  this  child  he 
was  one  day  in  a  grocery  store  when  the  lame  soldier 
came  in,  and  seeing  Susie’s  little  dog  jumping  about  he 
angrily  kicked  the  dog  into  the  street.  For  this  Cud¬ 
lipp,  instantly  seizing  a  stick  of  wood,  knocked  the  sol¬ 
dier  down.  The  encounter  aggravated  the  situation  so 
that  the  latter  searched  out  Cudlipp’s  record  and  found 
that  at  one  time  when  a  boy  he  had  been  in  a  Richmond 
prison. 

A  few  days  later  Cudlipp,  just  after  dark,  was  car¬ 
rying  a  pitcher  of  milk  to  his  family.  Suddenly  from 
an  alley  way  the  soldier  sprang  upon  him,  when  Cud- 
lipp,  quickly  backing  off,  swung  the  pitcher  over  his 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

head  and  laid  the  soldier  upon  his  back,  bruising  him 
badly.  This  occurred  in  1874. 

One  evening  Cudlipp’s  sister  came  to  my  house 
near  Howard  University.  She  was  crying  bitterly  and 
could  hardly  speak.  She  said  that  her  brother  had 
been  arrested  and  thrown  into  jail  and  wanted  very 
much  to  see  me.  Learning  the  story,  I  went  at  once  to 
the  police  judge,  who  was  my  friend,  and  heard  his  ver¬ 
sion  of  the  case.  He  said  that  Cudlipp  had  nobody  to 
appear  for  him,  and,  thinking  that  he  deserved  severe 
punishment,  he  had  fined  him  $100  and  given  him  con¬ 
finement  for  one  month. 

When  I  told  the  judge  the  circumstances  of  the 
young  man’s  life  and  what  a  faithful  clerk  he  had  been 
when  with  me,  and,  in  fact,  ever  since,  the  judge  said 
that  if  I  would  pay  the  fine  he  would  remit  the  confine¬ 
ment.  I  did  so  at  once  and  then  went  back  with  Cud¬ 
lipp  to  see  General  Leggett.  The  general  declared  that 
he  could  not  reinstate  him,  for,  he  said :  “  I  have  just 
learned  that  he  has  been  in  a  penitentiary  at  Rich¬ 
mond,  Va.,  having  been  convicted  of  a  high  crime.”  I 
then  found  this  to  be  the  record : 

When  a  lad  of  twelve  years  a  rough  man  had 
come  to  his  mother’s  home  and  insulted  her  in  his  pres¬ 
ence.  The  boy  had  a  large-sized  jackknife  in  his  hand 
and  struck  the  man  with  it  in  the  breast,  inflicting  a 
fatal  wound.  The  boy  was  arrested,  tried,  and  sen¬ 
tenced  to  ten  years  in  the  penitentiary  and  had  been 
kept  in  for  his  full  term.  While  there,  though  asso¬ 
ciated  with  criminals,  he  was  thoroughly  trained  in 
all  that  would  be  necessary  to  fit  him  for  a  clerkship. 

I  carried  the  case  up  to  the  Hon.  Columbus  Delano, 
the  Secretary  of  the  Interior.  I  left  Cudlipp  in  the  hall 
near  the  secretary’s  door.  The  secretary  was  very 

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Life  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  1866  to  1871 

pleasant  and  expressed  his  sorrow,  but  he  said:  “  Gen¬ 
eral  Howard,  it  will  not  do  to  have  a  penitentiary  man 
in  Government  employ.”  Such  was  his  decision. 

With  a  sad  heart  I  stepped  out  and  told  the  young 
man  that  the  secretary  did  not  dare  to  put  him  on  the 
rolls  again.  The  effect  upon  Cudlipp  was  startling. 
Pale  as  death,  he  leaned  against  the  wall  and  mur¬ 
mured  :  “  It  is  no  use,  general !  I  can  never  do  any¬ 
thing  in  this  world !  ” 

That  was  the  nearest  approach  to  despair  that  I 
ever  witnessed.  I  said  to  him :  “  Cudlipp,  look  at  me. 
Who  am  I  ?  ” 

With  a  faint  smile  he  said :  “  General  Howard,  of 
course.” 

“  Have  I  been  your  friend?  ” 

He  said :  “  I  should  think  so.” 

“  Are  you  sure?  ” 

“  I  could  not  doubt  you.” 

“  Now  you  may  understand  this :  that  if  I  am  once 
a  man’s  friend,  I  remain  so,  unless  there  is  some  good 
reason  for  a  change.  I  am  going  to  start  for  the  Pa¬ 
cific  coast  in  a  few  days  and  I  will  take  you  as  my 
clerk.” 

The  revulsion  was  very  strong.  His  face  flushed 
and  his  eyes  filled  as  he  said :  “  Would  you  do  that?  ” 

My  answer  was :  “  Go  home  and  get  your  wife  and 
Susie  ready  and  go  with  me.” 

So  on  the  same  train  and  steamer  with  us  William 
Cudlipp  and  his  wife  and  child  made  their  way  to  Port¬ 
land,  Ore.  There  he  became,  in  my  office,  as  he  had 
been  before,  an  energetic,  hard-working,  faithful  clerk. 


467 


CHAPTER  LXIII 


IN  THE  NORTHWEST,  AMONG  THE  INDIANS ;  TRIP  TO  ALASKA ; 
LIFE  IN  PORTLAND,  ORE.  ;  1874  TO  1881 

IN  Portland,  Ore.,  there  were  two  large  banks  on 
Front  Street;  one  was  the  First  National,  of  which 
Henry  Failing  was  the  president,  and  the  other  a  pri¬ 
vate  banking  house  of  which  Ladd  &  Tilton  were  the 
proprietors.  Ladd’s  bank  was  at  the  time  of  my  ar¬ 
rival  probably  the  wealthiest,  and  had  the  largest  cir¬ 
culation  of  any  in  Oregon.  Mr.  Ladd  was  a  Christian 
man  and  wanted  to  do  a  kindness  to  the  Young  Men’s 
Christian  Association,  then  very  small  in  numbers  and 
in  possessions.  He  gave  it  a  room  in  the  rear  of  his 
bank  building  in  the  second  story,  and  there  our  young 
men  met  from  time  to  time.  They  were  very  poorly 
supplied  with  books  or  facilities  for  doing  their  work. 
I  had  hardly  become  established  in  my  headquarters 
and  in  my  home  before  I  was  elected  to  the  presidency 
of  the  association.  This  came  probably  because  I  had 
been  for  so  many  years  president  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  in 
Washington. 

It  was  not  long  before  I  found  myself  associated 
with  several  active  workers  such  as  Dr.  Lindsley,  Will¬ 
iam  Wadhams,  Mr.  Wakefield,  James  Steele,  and 
others.  At  that  time  Captain  M.  C.  Wilkinson  of  my 
staff  was  very  active  and  earnest  in  Christian  effort. 

Soon  we  rented  a  large  set  of  rooms  on  the  lower 
side  of  Front  Street,  where  there  had  been  a  saloon 

468 


In  the  Northwest,  Among  the  Indians 

and  extensive  gambling  arrangements.  Onr  meetings 
kept  increasing,  and  large  numbers  of  those  who  had 
gone  astray  were  brought  back  to  the  Master’s  service. 

A  single  instance  may  show  how  we  worked  in 
those  days.  E.  P.  Hammond,  the  evangelist,  was  hold¬ 
ing  meetings  in  the  skating  rink,  a  very  spacious  hall. 
There  came  in  several  men  under  the  influence  of  drink 
who  seemed  to  have  had  the  purpose  of  breaking  up 
the  meeting.  One  man  quite  befuddled  with  liquor 
said  to  me  as  I  tried  to  reason  with  him,  “  Old  man, 
you  are  right.  I  wish  you  would  sing  *  The  Sweet  By 
and  By.’  ” 

Instantly  the  assembly  took  up  the  hymn.  I  sat 
down  by  the  youngest  of  the  intruders.  His  name  was 
Williams,  the  adopted  son  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Daniel 
Williams,  special  friends  of  my  family.  The  young 
man  had  gone  so  far  that  his  parents  despaired  of  him, 
and  he  appeared  to  be  given  over  to  dissipation.  Sud¬ 
denly  he  looked  up  into  my  face  with  a  hopeless  ex¬ 
pression  and  murmured :  “  Little  as  you  think  it,  I 
would  like  to  reform !  ” 

Of  course  I  reasoned  with  him,  but  he  was  too  much 
under  the  influence  of  liquor  to  give  me  hope  that  he 
would  remember  what  he  promised. 

Two  days  after  that,  just  at  evening  when  I  was 
leaving  my  office  on  Front  Street,  I  saw  Williams  sit¬ 
ting  in  the  doorway  of  a  closed  store.  He  was  badly 
intoxicated  and  hardly  able  to  sit  erect.  I  went  to  him 
and  asked  him  to  walk  home  with  me.  This  he  was  un¬ 
able  to  do.  I  called  a  hack  that  was  passing  and  told 
him  to  get  in.  With  bleared  eyes  he  gazed  around  to 
see  if  anybody  was  looking  and  said :  “  I  am  ashamed.” 

I  succeeded  in  getting  him  into  the  hack  and  took 
him  home  with  me,  where  we  put  him  to  bed  and  kept 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

him  for  several  days,  taking  good  care  that  he  should 
not  get  at  his  clothing  and  give  us  the  slip  till  the 
effects  of  the  liquor  had  left  him. 

He  then  went  into  the  evangelistic  meetings  of  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  was  soon  a  new  man.  He  was  restored 
to  his  parents,  and  was  soon  married.  All  the  time  I 
had  knowledge  of  the  family,  he  was  leading  an  hon¬ 
orable  life. 

There  were  many  other  remarkable  instances  of 
reformation.  It  seemed  at  that  period  that  Satan  was 
striving  with  all  his  helpers  against  light  and  knowl¬ 
edge,  but  in  process  of  time  the  better  people  of  that 
Western  city  conquered,  building  up  their  effective 
school  system  and  their  magnificent  churches. 

I  remember  that  Mr.  William  Wadhams,  Captain 
Wilkinson,  and  myself  paid  a  visit  together  to  a  man 
who  had  a  wife  and  several  children.  He  was  a  drunk¬ 
ard,  and  she  was  slatternly  dressed  and  foolish,  really 
taking  advantage  of  his  dissipation  to  get  the  sympa¬ 
thy  and  help  of  the  well-to-do.  We  found  this  man  at 
his  home  and  talked  to  him  awhile.  His  wife  brought 
out  their  large  Bible,  and  he  took  a  pencil  in  his  hand 
and  signed  a  pledge  which  one  of  us  had  drawn  up, 
and  looking  up  he  said  with  determination :  “  May  the 
Almighty  strike  me  dead  if  I  do  not  keep  this  pledge.” 
Then  he  signed  it. 

With  more  difficulty  we  succeeded  at  last  in  getting 
his  wife  to  promise  to  do  her  part  in  taking  care  of 
the  children  and  the  home,  and  doing  what  she  could 
to  make  her  husband  comfortable  during  his  hours  of 
rest  from  labor. 

He  drove  a  heavy  freight  truck,  and  ever  after  that 
he  came  into  our  meetings,  participated  with  us  in  our 
exercises,  and  sustained  a  good  and  wholesome  career. 

470 


In  the  Northwest,  Among  the  Indians 

This  shows  what  can  be  done  in  onr  Y.  M.  C.  A.  by 
a  little  united  effort  in  behalf  of  those  who  are  astray. 
Those  cases  seem  to  indicate  much  work,  yet  all  of  us 
who  belonged  to  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  had  other  employment 
at  that  time,  very  absorbing  on  every  day  except  the 
Sabbath,  and  such  evenings  as  we  could  set  apart  for 
religious  effort. 

About  this  time  I  was  one  evening  in  the  chapel  of 
the  Presbyterian  church,  Dr.  Lindsley’s,  conducting  a 
social  meeting.  Many  were  present,  when  suddenly 
there  came  in,  across  the  room  from  the  desk,  a  wild¬ 
looking  man  with  jet  black,  disheveled  hair  and  keen 
eyes.  It  was  a  striking  figure  and  attracted  quick  at¬ 
tention.  The  man  seemed  to  be  beside  himself.  He 
cried  out:  “  Is  this  the  house  of  God?  ” 

I  answered:  “  Yes,  that  is  what  we  call  it.” 

He  said:  “  May  I  say  something  here?  ” 

Walking  and  talking  he  came  up  to  the  desk.  I  an¬ 
swered  him :  “  Certainly.” 

He  turned  around  and  the  first  utterance  he  made 
was :  “  God  bless  them  women !  ”  looking  at  several 
who  sat  in  front  of  him.  Then  he  told  us  that  some 
ladies  had  entered  his  saloon  a  few  days  before  and 
knelt  and  prayed  in  their  work  to  try  and  stop  this 
evil.  Their  brave  act  had  affected  him  strongly.  It 
seems  that  he  had  been  what  they  call  in  the  Northwest 
a  “  sport.”  He,  Ned  Chambreau,  was  a  Frenchman, 
and  had  come  from  Canada  in  the  early  days  of  Ore¬ 
gon.  He  had  married  a  young  girl  who  was  already, 
though  not  more  than  fifteen  years  of  age,  a  decided 
praying  Christian.  Ned  said  that  she  would  pray  him 
out  of  any  difficulty  he  got  into,  and  his  difficulties 
were  many.  Indeed,  his  conduct  at  times  was  criminal 
and  exposed  him  to  arrest. 

471 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

Now  he  was  thoroughly  in  earnest  for  good  and 
ready  to  turn  over  a  new  leaf.  Mr.  William  Wadhams 
helped  him,  by  a  stock  of  goods,  to  go  into  the  hard¬ 
ware  business,  but  he  did  not  succeed  in  that.  Then 
he  undertook  the  grocery  trade,  but  after  a  time  a  sec¬ 
ond  failure  distressed  him.  I  shall  never  forget  how 
he  would  come  to  me  and  ask  me  to  walk  up  and  down 
the  sidewalk  with  him  to  comfort  him. 

One  day  when  matters  were  at  their  worst  Cham- 
breau  received  an  offer  from  one  of  his  old  gambling 
friends  which  was  very  tempting,  and  it  was  accom¬ 
panied  by  some  apparatus  necessary  to  make  the  card 
game  safe  and  sure.  His  friend  said :  “  Christians 
don’t  care  for  you.  You  will  starve  to  death.  Come 
back  to  us  and  you  can  have  anything  you  want.” 

The  night  after  receiving  this  apparatus  a  kind 
lady  was  going  past  his  store  when  she  heard  a  man 
weeping  aloud  and  praying;  she  went  in  and  found 
Ned  Chambreau  on  his  knees  in  terrible  distress. 

“  Why,  Mr.  Chambreau,”  she  said ;  “  what  is  the 
matter  ?  ” 

“  Oh,  dear,  I  cannot  pay  my  rent  and  I  cannot  get 
ahead  in  my  business,  and  I  have  had  this  tempting 
offer  to  go  back  to  my  old  ways.” 

She  said  kindly :  “  I  will  be  your  friend,”  and  ran 
out  immediately,  and  visited  several  good  Christian 
people  who  contributed  money  enough  to  pay  his  rent 
and  bridge  over  the  difficulties. 

It  was  not  long  after,  that,  finding  Ned  Chambreau 
a  most  efficient  Indian  scout,  I  employed  him  as  such. 
I  sent  him  everywhere,  and,  as  he  was  familiar  with 
the  different  tribes  and  spoke  fluently  the  Chinook 
language,  he  did  the  Government  good  service.  He  re¬ 
mained  an  active  Christian  until  his  death. 

472 


In  the  Northwest,  Among  the  Indians 

Owing  to  my  pecuniary  condition  on  leaving  Wash¬ 
ington,  I  was  forced  to  do  something  to  earn  money 
over  and  beyond  my  pay.  Of  course,  by  extreme  econ¬ 
omy  something  could  be  saved  of  the  salary,  though 
when  it  is  remembered  that  for  some  time  we  were  paid 
in  greenbacks,  a  depreciated  currency,  and  lost  at  least 
a  quarter  of  the  face  value,  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
needs  of  a  large  family  would  not  allow  me  to  save 
much.  It  was  then  that  I  began  to  write  for  publica¬ 
tion. 

My  first  effort  was  “  Donald’s  School  Days,”  an  at¬ 
tempt  to  put  the  New  England  school  life  of  my  youth 
into  a  story  for  boys.  My  publishers  succeeded  in  get¬ 
ting  quite  a  circulation. 

In  the  winter  of  1876,  at  the  request  of  D.  H. 
Stearns,  during  his  absence  of  three  months,  I  wrote 
the  editorials  for  his  paper,  The  Portland  Bee.  This 
work  did  not  require  much  of  my  time.  I  have  pre¬ 
served  the  editorials  until  to-day.  I  remember  think¬ 
ing  I  would  try  an  experiment  and  so  wrote  sketches 
of  our  public  men  of  the  past,  of  Presidents  and  other 
statesmen,  comparing  and  contrasting  them  with  the 
statesmen  of  that  day  who  were  well  known  to  the 
country.  My  efforts  worked  so  well  that  the  paper  in¬ 
creased  in  circulation.  One  day  Judge  Deady  of  the 
United  States  District  Court  met  me,  and  not  knowing 
that  I  was  connected  in  any  way  with  the  paper  said : 
“What  has  happened  to  the  Beet  It  seems  to  have 
taken  on  a  new  life.” 

His  compliment  pleased  me  and  made  me  redouble 
my  efforts  to  give  interest  and  strength  to  the  editorial 
work. 

A  little  later  I  wrote  also  for  magazines  and  month¬ 
lies,  particularly  reminiscences  of  the  Civil  War. 

473 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

These  articles  were  well  received  and  brought  me  a 
few  hundred  dollars. 

One  day  in  Portland  I  was  invited  to  give  at  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  rooms  a  lecture  on  Gettysburg.  It  was 
then  that  I  made  my  first  effort  in  the  war  lectures.  I 
spoke  without  notes  and  told  the  story  of  Gettys¬ 
burg  as  well  as  I  could  from  my  own  points  of  ob¬ 
servation. 

Evidently  it  proved  interesting,  for  I  soon  received 
many  invitations  to  give  the  lecture. 

Nothing  ever  oppressed  me  more  than  a  debt,  and 
I  was  exceedingly  anxious  to  make  the  last  payment 
to  that  friend  who  had  loaned  me  the  $7,000  when  I 
needed  money. 

While  in  Portland,  Ore.,  we  took  our  letters  to  the 
First  Congregational  Church  of  that  city,  and  here, 
uniting  with  our  friends  of  that  connection,  I  did  what 
I  could  to  assist  the  minister,  Kev.  Mr.  Eaton,  in  his 
arduous  work.  Habitually  I  taught  the  large  Bible 
class  in  his  Sunday  school,  and  bore  my  part  in  his 
social  and  religious  meetings. 

As  much  of  my  duty  had  to  do  with  the  various 
tribes  of  Indians,  I  spent  much  time  in  going  from  one 
post  to  another  of  my  extensive  territory.  The  three 
Indian  wars  with  the  Nez  Perces,  the  Piutes  and  Ban¬ 
nocks,  and  the  so-called  “  Sheep  Eaters  ”  took  three 
summers  and  much  planning  during  my  command  of 
the  Department  of  the  Columbia. 

In  the  Nez  Perces  campaign  I  gathered  all  avail¬ 
able  military  force  near  Fort  Lapwai,  Idaho,  and  after 
the  most  arduous  campaign,  with  several  battles  and 
a  continuous  march  of  over  1,400  miles  across  the 
Bocky  Mountains,  making  our  way  through  the  forests 
of  the  Yellowstone  National  Park,  I  succeeded  in  de- 

474 


In  the  Northwest,  Among  the  Indians 

taining  the  Indians  till  General  Nelson  A.  Miles  over¬ 
took  and  had  a  battle  with  them  near  Bearpaw  Moun¬ 
tain.  The  firing  was  still  going  on  when  I  arrived  on 
the  field,  and  through  my  own  interpreters  succeeded 
in  persuading  Chief  Joseph  to  abandon  further  hos¬ 
tile  effort  and  make  a  prompt  surrender.1 

In  1876  what  was  called  the  “  Custer  Massacre  ”  oc¬ 
curred  in  Dakota.  A  large  number  of  officers  of  the 
Seventh  cavalry  were  killed,  thus  creating  an  unusual 
number  of  vacancies  in  the  army. 

My  son  Guy,  who  had  finished  his  studies  at  Yale 
and  had  been  a  year  working  in  a  Portland  banking 
house,  came  to  me  and  said :  “  In  our  bank  a  cashier- 
ship  became  available  and  another  young  man  without 
experience,  just  from  Scotland,  was  given  the  place 
over  my  head.  Now,  father,  I  want  you  to  ask  for  me 
an  appointment ;  your  friends  are  in  the  army !  ” 

I  wrote  a  dispatch  to  General  Sherman,  stating 
that  my  son  wanted  an  appointment  in  the  army.  Guy, 
smiling,  said :  “  Please  do  not  put  it  that  way,  but  say 
that  you  want  it.” 

“  All  right,  Guy,  go  up  home  and  see  your  mother 
and  find  what  she  says  about  such  an  appointment !  ” 

He  soon  came  back  to  headquarters  and  said, 
“  Mother  assents,  with  the  hope  of  something  better 
by  and  by  outside.” 

I  sent  the  telegram  asking  for  a  commission  in  the 
cavalry.  Within  twenty-four  hours  an  answer  was  re¬ 
turned:  “  Your  son  is  appointed  by  the  President,  regi¬ 
ment  to  be  designated  hereafter.” 

He  was  then  placed  before  an  army  board,  passed 
a  creditable  examination,  and  entered  the  service. 

JFor  account  of  Indian  campaign  see  my  works  entitled  “Chief  Joseph 
in  Peace  and  in  War”  and  “My  Life  among  Hostile  Indians.”  O.  O.  II. 

475 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

When  his  commission  of  second  lieutenant  came,  it  was 
for  the  Twelfth  Infantry,  not  for  the  cavalry. 

Eventually,  however,  he  was  appointed  captain 
in  the  quartermaster’s  department  of  the  army,  and 
did  service  where  it  was  especially  pleasing  to  him. 
He  took  great  pains  to  inform  himself  with  reference 
to  everything  pertaining  to  military  affairs,  studying 
the  tactics  of  all  civilized  nations  and  showing  himself 
particularly  able  as  an  executive  officer.  Part  of  the 
time  during  the  Indian  wars  I  had  him  on  my  staff.1 

While  acting  in  this  capacity,  he  never  wished  me 
to  tell  him  how  to  do  anything.  “  Just  say,  father, 
what  you  want  me  to  do  and  it  will  be  done.”  These 
characteristics  enabled  him  to  perform  a  variety  of 
service  and  finally  promoted  him  to  lieutenant  colonel 
and  chief  quartermaster  of  the  Second  Corps  in  the 
enlarged  army  during  the  war  with  Spain. 

We  had  been  in  the  Northwest  not  quite  a  year 
when,  having  to  visit  Alaska,  I  took  my  family  with 
me  to  that  territory.  We  were  on  the  June  trip  of  the 
steamer  California.  The  weather  was  fine  and  the  ex¬ 
pedition  was  very  successful,  full  of  interesting  inci¬ 
dents  from  start  to  finish. 

We  were  able  to  take  our  steamer  on  a  trip  north 
of  Sitka, — a  few  days  and  nights’  run;  visiting  alto¬ 
gether  seven  Indian  tribes.2 

1  In  both  the  Nez  Perces  and  Bannock  wars  Second  Lieutenant  Guy 
Howard’s  gallant  conduct  was  conspicuous.  On  August  20,  1877,  at  Camas 
Meadows,  Ida.,  the  Indians  made  a  night  attack  on  our  camp  and  the  bullets 
were  cutting  through  the  tent  occupied  by  Guy  and  myself.  Guy  called  out, 
“Father,  lie  down  or  you  will  be  hit,”  but  I  noticed  that  Guy  did  not  lie 
down  himself  but  immediately  went  out  to  assist  in  forming  the  lines  for 
defense. 

For  gallant  service  in  action  Lieutenant  Howard  received  from  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  the  brevet  rank  of  first  lieutenant.  O.  O.  H. 

2  Of  this  journey  I  have  given  a  detailed  account  in  my  book  on  Indians. 

476 


In  the  Northwest,  Among  the  Indians 

On  June  17th  we  were  on  St.  Frederick’s  Sound. 
It  appeared  like  an  inland  lake,  as  smooth  as  a  mill 
pond,  and  surrounded  by  hills  large  and  small  and 
mountains  covered  with  snow.  It  being  Bunker  Hill 
Day,  we  fired  a  salute  with  our  single  cannon.  Near 
evening  I  gave  to  the  passengers  the  story  of  Gettys¬ 
burg,  using  some  red  chalk  on  an  improvised  black¬ 
board.  At  ten  o’clock  at  night  I  was  still  talking  to  the 
people  while  the  sun  was  considerably  above  the  hori¬ 
zon.  That  night  we  noticed  that  there  was  but  little 
space  from  twilight  to  dawn,  not  more  than  an  hour. 
It  was  difficult  for  Mrs.  Howard  to  persuade  the  chil¬ 
dren  to  go  to  bed  when  the  sun  was  shining. 

After  our  return,  October,  1875,  I  received  word 
that  a  British  general  was  moving  along  our  border 
between  Canada  and  the  United  States  to  make  in¬ 
spections,  and  that  he  would  be  in  the  vicinity  of  Fort 
Walla  Walla  before  many  days.  Taking  my  staff  with 
me,  I  went  up  to  meet  him,  October  12th.  Just  as  we 
were  setting  out  from  the  fort,  mounted,  my  aid-de- 
camp,  Captain  J.  A.  Sladen,  undertook  to  ride  a 
horse  that  had  not  been  recently  used.  The  horse  had 
only  a  snaffle  bit,  and  the  captain,  who  was  a  good 
rider,  had  hardly  reached  the  saddle  before  the  animal 
sprang  forward  and  leaped  a  newly  opened  ditch,  just 
grazing  a  tree  against  which  Captain  Sladen  was 
thrown.  With  a  leg  badly  fractured  he  could  see  the 
bottom  of  his  foot,  and  as  he  lay  on  the  ground  he 
cried  out  in  prayer:  “0  Lord,  help  me!”  Just  as  I 
reached  him  he  looked  into  my  face  and  smiled,  say¬ 
ing:  “  We  always  do  so  when  we  get  into  trouble.” 

I  remember  that  I  answered :  “  Sladen,  sometimes 
the  trouble  is  permitted  for  that  reason !  ” 

The  captain’s  leg  had  to  be  amputated  and  he  was 

477 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

confined  for  a  couple  of  weeks  at  the  fort  and  then 
went  down  the  river  to  his  home  in  Portland;  when, 
later,  taking  a  steamer  to  join  our  families  at  Fort 
Stevens  near  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia,  he  slipped 
and  broke  open  the  newly  healed  wound.  He  endured 
great  suffering  in  consequence  of  this  and,  in  fact,  was 
obliged  to  have  his  leg  amputated  again. 

Since  the  accident  or  providence,  whatever  we  may 
call  it,  Sladen  has  especially  enjoyed  his  Christian 
work. 

We  met  the  English  general  and  his  staff  and  after 
showing  them  proper  attention  brought  them  to  Van¬ 
couver  and  Portland.  I  remember  that  the  general 
was  greatly  pleased  with  everything  in  the  West  ex¬ 
cept  that  the  Sabbath  was  not  carefully  observed. 
Walking  with  him  one  Sunday  morning,  he  pointed  to 
some  busy  workmen  along  the  line  of  the  railroad  and 
said :  “  What  a  pity  to  set  such  an  example.” 

I  had  not  been  in  the  city  of  Portland  long  before 
the  active  people  in  the  different  churches  combined  to 
form  a  union  mission  with  a  view  to  doing  something 
for  the  Chinamen,  who  had  already  come  in  large  num¬ 
bers  to  that  part  of  the  Pacific  coast. 

In  my  family  there  was  a  young  Chinaman  of  slen¬ 
der  build,  very  dignified,  and  apparently  independent. 
His  name  was  Moy  Yu  Ling.  One  day  I  gave  him  a 
Bible  printed  in  Chinese.  He  read  it  quietly  without 
remark,  but  soon  he  joined  the  mission,  became  deeply 
interested,  and  united  with  one  of  the  churches,  and 
for  over  twenty-five  years  has  been  a  consistent  Chris¬ 
tian  and  a  local  missionary  to  his  own  people  in  Port¬ 
land.  A  little  later  he  opened  up  a  store  filled  with 
Chinese  goods  of  various  descriptions.  As  a  merchant 
and  as  a  Christian  teacher,  for  he  continued  in  both 

478 


In  the  Northwest,  Among  the  Indians 

capacities,  he  has  been  remarkably  successful.  His 
children  speak  good  English,  and  we  always  say  when 
we  meet  them :  “  What  a  beautiful  family !  ”  The  last 
time  I  was  in  Portland  every  child  remembered  me, 
took  me  by  the  hand,  and  called  me  by  name. 

Through  Moy  Yu  Ling  I  came  in  contact  with  a 
large  number  of  Chinese  people  and  have  from  time  to 
time  interested  myself  in  their  welfare.  I  always  feel 
that  we  ought  to  put  up  the  bars  against  an  overplus 
of  immigration;  but  surely  we  ought  not  to  discrimi¬ 
nate  against  any  given  nation. 

In  1878  a  policy  was  inaugurated  by  the  War  De¬ 
partment,  with  a  view  to  economize,  to  change  the 
headquarters  of  each  department  from  the  cities  in 
which  they  were  located  to  the  nearest  army  post.  At 
the  end  of  four  years  the  headquarters  of  the  Depart¬ 
ment  of  the  Columbia  were  moved  to  Vancouver  Bar¬ 
racks,  and  there  I  went  with  my  staff  officers  and  my 
family  to  remain  two  years. 

At  first  we  occupied  the  house  that  had  been 
brought  in  pieces  around  the  Horn  to  Vancouver  from 
the  East.  This  was  done  when  Captain  Rufus  Ingalls 
was  post  quartermaster.  Soon  after  its  erection  Cap¬ 
tain  U.  S.  Grant  had  his  rooms  in  this  building.  I 
took  the  house  as  my  quarters  till  we  could  put  up 
another  structure  for  the  commanding  general  of  the 
department.  As  soon  as  that  was  completed  we  moved 
again  and  occupied  it  with  increased  comfort  and  sat¬ 
isfaction. 

It  was  while  I  was  stationed  at  this  post  and  occu¬ 
pying  these  new  quarters  that  General  Grant  with 
some  of  his  family  and  friends,  returning  from  his 
visit  around  the  world  in  1879,  made  us  a  call.  We 
gave  him  and  his  party  an  evening  reception,  having 

479 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

invited  public  men  from  the  territory  of  Washington 
and  the  State  of  Oregon  to  meet  him. 

When  General  Grant  and  his  wife  rode  up  with  me 
from  the  Vancouver  dock  to  my  quarters,  he  had  many 
observations,  in  the  way  of  reminiscence,  to  make  con¬ 
cerning  the  situation.  For  example.  “  That  is  the  In¬ 
galls  house,  where  I  lived  for  some  time.”  After  look¬ 
ing  at  the  house  for  some  moments,  he  turned  to  the 
right  in  the  evening  twilight — we  could  see  quite  a  dis¬ 
tance  up  the  river — and  said:  “  Julia,  that  is  the  field 
where  I  planted  my  potatoes.” 

She  said :  “  Did  you  raise  a  crop,  Ulysses  !  ” 

“  No,  I  got  little  more  than  the  seed.” 

As  we  passed  through  the  town  he  noticed  a  tall 
brick  structure  that  he  had  not  seen  before  and  he  said, 
addressing  me:  “  What  is  that,  general!” 

I  answered :  “  A  brewery,  sir.” 

Then  he  said :  “  I  think,  Julia,  that  must  have  been 
put  up  on  Howard’s  account;  it  wasn’t  here  in  my 
day !  ” 

During  the  reception  that  evening  Governor  Ferry, 
of  Washington  Territory,  in  an  informal  address  in 
behalf  of  the  citizens,  welcomed  the  general  and  his 
friends  to  the  Pacific  coast.  The  general,  standing 
with  his  hand  upon  a  chair,  blushing  like  a  young  man 
making  his  first  speech,  answered  the  governor  in  a 
few  simple,  well-chosen  words.  He  pointed  out  some 
of  the  changes  that  had  taken  place  since  he  was  sta¬ 
tioned  in  that  vicinity,  and  he  predicted  a  great  future 
for  Washington  and  Oregon.  After  his  address  I  said 
to  him  that  I  had  been  told  he  could  not  make  a  speech. 

“  Oh,”  he  said,  “  I  have  been  practicing  on  my  feet 
since  I  went  abroad  till  I  can  manage  to  say  a  few 
words.” 


480 


In  the  Northwest,  Among  the  Indians 

Everybody,  including  General  and  Mrs.  Grant, 
gave  Mrs.  Howard  special  credit  for  the  cheerful, 
simple,  and  satisfactory  entertainment  of  the  even¬ 
ing. 

It  is  sometimes  thought  that  a  happy  reception  like 
the  one  we  had  could  not  be  given  without  the  aid  of 
wines.  This  one  was  especially  successful  and  a  good 
object  lesson  to  many  who  were  there  and  who  would 
be  called  upon  in  like  manner  to  entertain  their 
friends. 

The  general  and  his  company  returned  to  the 
steamer  for  the  night,  and  the  next  morning  I  went 
with  them  to  Portland — going  down  the  Columbia  and 
up  the  Willamette. 

One  instance  showed  Grant’s  humor.  He  and  his 
wife  were  standing  near  the  gunwale  as  we  approached 
the  city  of  Portland.  The  houses,  including  the  roofs, 
and  the  docks  were  thronged  with  people.  Noticing 
them  General  Grant  said  to  his  wife :  “  Julia,  look 
there;  see  those  people.  This  turn-out  must  be  on 
your  account,  because  when  I  came  here  before  there 
were  not  three  people  on  the  dock !  ” 

Soon  after  this  visit  to  Portland  we  all  accompanied 
the  general  and  the  strangers  on  one  of  the  Ocean 
Steam  Navigation  Company’s  large  steamers  on  an  ex¬ 
cursion  to  the  Cascades  of  the  Columbia.  On  the  way 
up  we  habitually  gathered  in  a  large  room  of  observa¬ 
tion,  just  in  front  of  the  lofty  pilot  house.  Grant  and 
most  of  the  company  were  smoking,  while  he  told  inci¬ 
dents  of  his  journey  around  the  world.  Among  other 
things  he  described  in  a  very  graphic  way  his  visit 
to  Japan.  He  said  he  was  received  by  the  princes  and 
officials  at  Tokio  in  great  style.  They  were  question¬ 
ing  him  with  reference  to  establishing  a  constitutional 

481 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

government  in  Japan.  One  of  them  said:  "General, 
we  would  like  to  have  a  government  such  as  you 
have,  or  such  as  England  has,  but  we  are  afraid 
that  if  we  give  the  right  of  suffrage  to  the  peo¬ 
ple  they  will  vote  us  out  of  office ;  of  course,  we  would 
like  to  participate  in  the  liberal  government  that  we 
desire  to  establish.” 

The  general  replied:  "But  do  not  go  so  fast;  give 
the  people  a  right  to  vote  on  a  few  things  at  first — upon 
the  establishment  of  schools,  for  example.  By  voting 
thev  will  learn  how  to  vote.” 

This  instance  is  quite  interesting  in  view  of  the  fact 
that  very  soon  a  constitutional  government  was  in¬ 
augurated  in  Japan,  the  history  of  which  is  certainly 
in  line  with  this  wholesome  advice  of  our  general, 
whose  heart  and  soul  were  permeated  with  a  love  for 
our  form  of  government. 

While  we  were  in  Vancouver,  on  September  17, 
1879,  our  daughter  Grace  married  Captain  James  T. 
Gray,  the  son  of  the  missionary,  W.  H.  Gray,  historian 
of  Oregon. 

During  the  fall  of  1879,  President  Hayes,  accom¬ 
panied  by  General  Sherman  and  others,  paid  a  visit  to 
Oregon  and  Washington  Territory.  I  met  him  at 
Boseberg  as  they  came  up  from  California,  and  ac¬ 
companied  them  along  the  line  of  the  railroad  and 
elsewhere,  while  they  were  in  my  department.  We 
had  interesting  journeys  up  the  Columbia  and  over 
Puget  Sound.  Mr.  Hayes  was  greatly  interested  in 
the  various  Indian  tribes  that  we  met.  He  had  a  char¬ 
acteristic  council  one  day  with  the  Puyallups  at  Ta¬ 
coma.  The  Indians  selected  their  speakers  with  some 
care,  and  after  the  interview  was  over  President 
Hayes  remarked :  “  What  orators  they  are !  Every  one 

482 


In  the  Northwest,  Among  the  Indians 

of  these  wild  men  has  made  a  speech  that  would  do 
honor  to  a  member  of  Congress.” 

Just  about  that  time  I  had  difficulty  in  preserving 
a  small  tract  of  country  to  Spokane  Lott  and  his  peo¬ 
ple.  He  was  the  chief  of  a  band  of  Indians.  Lott  was 
a  remarkable  character.  He  was  taught  Christianity 
when  a  youth  by  Father  Eeles,  an  old  missionary.  I 
was  on  one  occasion  with  him  in  a  meeting  where  there 
were  two  Presbyterian  ministers  holding  a  communion. 
The  habit  was  for  each  communicant  to  make  a  con¬ 
fession  of  his  sins.  The  Indians  told  in  their  simple 
way  what  they  had  done  that  was  wrong.  One  man, 
for  example,  said :  “  I  have  stolen  two  horses.  I  will 
never  steal  horses  any  more,  and  I  have  given  back 
the  horses  to  the  Indian  owner.” 

We  were  in  a  large  Indian  house  constructed  with¬ 
out  any  windows  and  having  but  one  room.  It  was 
the  only  room  in  the  tribe.  The  women  and  children 
crowded  in  and  sat  on  the  ground.  There  were  a  few 
benches  and  a  table  on  one  side,  where  the  ministers 
were.  Several  public  confessions,  one  after  another, 
had  been  made ;  one  woman  far  hack  rose  up  and  was 
talking  in  a  querulous  voice.  Lott,  who  was  as  tall 
as  Abraham  Lincoln,  rose  slowly  from  his  squatting 
position  near  the  table.  At  his  full  height  he  stretched 
out  his  hand,  palm  down,  and  motioned  it  toward  the 
woman  and  said  something.  The  interpreter  near  me 
whispered:  “  Lott  says,  ‘  Sister,  sit  down.  You  can 
confess  your  own  sins,  but  you  have  no  business  to 
confess  other  folks’  sins.’  ” 

I  was  in  great  distress  a  while  before  the  Presi¬ 
dent’s  visit,  because  I  could  not  properly  protect  Lott 
and  his  lands  against  the  encroachments  of  avaricious 
white  settlers.  I  carried  the  case  at  once  to  General 

483 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

Sherman,  and  showed  him  an  order  setting  apart  a 
portion  of  the  public  land,  where  Lott  was,  for  a  reser¬ 
vation.  This  order,  approved  by  General  Sherman, 
was  signed  by  the  President,  and  I  had  the  satisfac¬ 
tion  of  issuing  it  and  seeing  it  executed.  When,  a  few 
months  later,  I  was  obliged  to  leave  for  the  East,  being 
under  orders  to  go  to  West  Point  as  superintendent, 
Lott  heard  of  it  and  came  five  hundred  miles  to  see  me 
in  Portland.  Hearing  that  I  had  already  taken  the 
steamer  to  depart  for  San  Francisco,  Lott  rushed  on 
board,  and,  seeing  me,  began  to  talk  rapidly  in  broken 
English.  “  You  no  go,  no  leave !  You  leave,  we  have 
trouble ;  you  stay,  we  have  peace.”  It  would  be  impos¬ 
sible  to  describe  his  pleadings,  but  he  showed  much 
feeling  and  was  sure  I  could  remain  if  I  would.  I  told 
him  that  the  President  had  ordered  me  to  another 
field  of  duty  and  that  I  must  obey,  but  that  I  should 
always  be  his  friend,  and  that  I  did  not  think  he 
would  have  any  more  trouble. 

I  asked  Lott  once  with  reference  to  giving  the  land 
in  severalty  to  the  Indians.  He  said:  “No!  No!” 
that  with  his  band  it  would  do  no  good.  There  was 
hardly  an  Indian  who  could  take  up  land  according  to 
law;  they  did  not  have  the  energy  or  the  education. 
“  If  you  will  let  me  take  the  reservation  I  can  raise 
enough,  with  the  help  of  the  old  people,  to  support 
them  well;  and  this  is  the  way  to  do  till  the  children 
grow  up  and  are  taught  to  be  like  other  Americans.” 


484 


CHAPTER  LXIV 


SUPERINTENDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  MILITARY  ACAD¬ 
EMY  ;  COMMANDING  DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  PLATTE, 

OMAHA,  NEB. 


SERIOUS  trouble  bad  occurred  at  the  Military 


*  *  Academy  on  account  of  a  colored  cadet,  Whit¬ 
taker,  who  had  been  injured,  so  he  asserted,  by  young 
men  hazing  him.  He  had  been  previously  so  badly 
treated  that  it  was  not  unnatural  to  suppose  that  it 
had  finally  culminated  in  doing  him  a  physical  injury. 
Whittaker  claimed  that  this  was  the  case  and  that  he 
had  been  bound  and  maltreated.  Those  who  were  op¬ 
posed  to  him  said  that  he  had  injured  himself  and  then 
tied  himself  up  afterwards,  and  made  complaint  with  a 
view  to  revenging  himself  upon  his  enemies.  This  was 
the  contention.  A  court  of  inquiry  had  been  held  at 
West  Point  the  result  of  which  had  not  been  at  all 
satisfactory.  The  incident  had  caused  a  great  deal 
of  public  comment  in  the  newspapers,  and  sharp  ex¬ 
citement  for  and  against  the  colored  cadet. 

President  Hayes  had  an  idea  that  I  was  the 
proper  man  to  settle  such  a  case.  For  other  reasons 
also  the  President  wished  to  assign  me  to  command 
the  Military  Academy.  I  knew  nothing  of  these  rea¬ 
sons  when  suddenly  I  received  orders,  near  the  close 
of  1880,  to  proceed  to  West  Point,  and  as  superintend¬ 
ent  of  the  Military  Academy  take  command  there. 

When  we  reached  Chicago  the  cold  was  intense. 
The  thermometer  registered  thirty  degrees  below  zero. 


485 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

A  colored  man  unknown  to  me,  who  was  driving  the 
carriage  from  the  station  to  the  hotel,  seized  a  buffalo 
coat  and  put  it  over  my  shoulders,  but  my  son  John, 
who  was  then  a  lad  of  fourteen,  was  not  sufficiently 
covered  and  took  a  severe  cold  which  in  the  end  re¬ 
sulted  in  an  attack  of  pneumonia  that  nearly  cost  him 
his  life. 

Cold  like  that  seemed  to  be  a  positive  quantity  and 
not  simply  the  absence  of  heat,  and  when  it  does  take 
hold  even  of  a  healthy  child,  it  is  apt  to  make  its  mark 
upon  him  for  life. 

I  went  to  Washington  before  I  entered  upon  my 
duties  at  West  Point.  The  President  laid  the  case  of 
Whittaker,  the  colored  cadet,  before  me,  and  asked  me 
what  I  would  advise.  I  said  at  once  that  I  should  ad¬ 
vise  taking  the  case  away  from  West  Point,  where  the 
social  prejudice  was  strong  against  a  negro  cadet.  I 
suggested  the  yielding  to  his  desire  to  have  a  regu¬ 
lar  court-martial  and  to  locate  the  court  in  New 
York. 

Whittaker  had  an  able  lawyer,  a  young  colored 
man  by  the  name  of  Greener,  who  was  defending  him 
and  who  was  very  strongly  of  the  opinion  that  Whit¬ 
taker  was  innocent  of  any  attempt  at  fraud  or  deceit. 
The  case  was  tried  in  New  York  as  I  recommended, 
and  the  young  man  was  pronounced  guilty  of  doing 
himself  the  injuries  in  view  of  putting  his  cadet  com¬ 
rades  in  a  bad  light.  He  was  convicted  and  sentenced 
to  be  discharged  the  service.  On  review  the  Presi¬ 
dent,  permitting  the  young  man  to  tender  his  resig¬ 
nation,  remitted  the  sentence.  After  a  few  weeks  the 
ugly  excitement  that  grew  out  of  this  event  disap¬ 
peared  altogether. 

I  went  to  the  Military  Academy  and  assumed  corn- 

486 


General  Howard,  Superintendent  United  States  Military  Academy,  and  Aids-de-Camp  at 

West  Point,  N.  Y.,  1881. 

(To  the  general’s  right  is  his  son.  Colonel  Guy  Howard,  later  killed  in  action  in  the  Philippine  Islands;  in  the  center,  Lieutenant  C. 
E.  S.  Wood;  to  extreme  left,  seated,  Captain  J.  A.  Sladen,  who  was  with  the  general  twenty-three  years  in  campaign  and  battle,  and 
lost  his  leg  in  service  on  General  Howard’s  staff.) 


. 

Superintendent  of  the  U.  S.  Military  Academy 

mand,  and  was  the  superintendent  for  the  two  years 

1881-82. 

I  found  it  the  hardest  office  to  fill  that  I  had  ever 
had.  There  is  a  beautiful  outside  to  the  Military  Acad¬ 
emy  :  everything  goes  on  with  regularity  and  order, 
and  every  professor  and  assistant  professor  and  offi¬ 
cer  does  his  duty  as  fully  as  any  officer  in  the  service, 
but  I  found  at  that  time  a  social  undercurrent  that  was 
not  so  pleasant,  and  that  the  superintendent  had  some¬ 
thing  to  do  besides  the  ordinary  work  of  commanding 
a  department.  A  majority  of  the  officers  were 
strongly  opposed  to  its  remaining  a  department. 
They  in  general  wanted  to  get  it  back  to  where  it  was, 
under  the  charge  of  the  engineers  of  the  army  with 
an  engineer  officer  as  superintendent.  Indeed,  there 
was  extraordinary  fretting  when  the  first  general 
officer  was  assigned.  I  was  the  fourth.  The  opposi¬ 
tion  had  gathered  strength  with  time.  It  was  not  open, 
but  secret,  and  consisted  in  correspondence  with  the 
War  Department,  with  the  head  of  the  army,  and  with 
all  officers  who  had  in  Washington  anything  to  do 
with  the  Military  Academy. 

There  had  always  been  opposition  to  the  change, 
and  perhaps  it  was  well  that,  ending  with  my  adminis¬ 
tration,  the  Military  Academy,  which  consisted  of  the 
corps  of  cadets  and  other  organizations,  with  all  the 
population  of  the  reservation,  should  again  be  put 
under  charge  of  an  officer  of  lower  rank  than  myself, 
and  cease  forever  to  be  a  military  department.  In 
fact,  it  requires  less  machinery  and  perhaps  more  di¬ 
rect  responsibility  on  the  part  of  the  superintendent, 
who  could  have  no  other  help  than  the  academic  staff 
proper. 

One  change  I  had  made  that  gave  me  a  good  deal 

487 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

of  satisfaction.  It  was  with  the  chaplain,  that  he 
might  come  into  more  immediate  contact  with  the  ca¬ 
dets,  and  that  they  should  have  the  privilege  of  going 
directly  to  him  at  all  times.  To  this  end  he  was  given 
rooms  in  the  cadet  barracks,  and  there  he  invited  the 
confidence  of  the  cadets. 

The  meetings  for  social  religions  exercises  had 
been  retained  ever  since  I  had  established  them  before 
the  war. 

Another  change  which  caused  me  a  good  deal  of 
heartache  was  to  do  away  with  the  system  that  had 
been  in  vogue  so  long  at  the  mess  hall,  of  treating  the 
cadets  to  very  indifferent  fare  and  reasoning  that 
they  ought  to  be  kept  to  the  rations  of  the  enlisted 
men.  In  fact,  the  rations  of  the  men  at  the  different 
posts  in  the  army  in  the  time  of  peace  had  been  im¬ 
proved  by  their  company  gardens,  by  their  sale  of 
bread,  and  by  other  means  until  they  were  far  ahead 
of  the  cadet  mess.  True,  the  cadets  had  a  garden,  but 
in  some  way  everything  touching  their  food  was  un¬ 
satisfactory  to  them.  I  recommended  that  the  veteran 
purveyor  of  the  mess  be  retired,  and  properly  paid, 
and  that  an  officer,  William  F.  Spurgin,  be  detailed  in 
his  place,  and  have  the  whole  charge  of  the  cadets’ 
commissary,  garden,  and  mess  hall.  I  had  had  a  long 
experience  with  Spurgin  in  the  West  and  knew  what 
he  could  do.  He  came  and  took  hold  of  the  work  as 
nobody  had  ever  done  before.  His  efforts  were  so 
productive  of  good  results  that  the  cadets  very  soon 
called  him  “  General  Spurgin.”  His  theory  was  to 
give  them  the  best  possible  of  everything,  and  while 
he  improved  their  table  extraordinarily,  he  managed 
to  diminish  and  not  increase  the  expenses. 

I  found  again  that  the  windows  of  what  we  used  to 

488 


Superintendent  of  the  U.  S.  Military  Academy 

call  “  The  New  Barracks/’  having  small  diamond  panes 
of  glass,  brought  so  little  light  into  the  cadets’  rooms, 
that  it  was  positively  injurious  to  their  eyes.  It  was 
not  long  before  I  had  those  properly  replaced  by  good 
windows  with  large  panes. 

When  I  first  reached  the  Military  Academy,  owing 
to  a  few  things  in  the  previous  administration  in  which 
the  general  officer  had  striven  to  give  the  cadets  more 
and  more  privileges  with  a  view  of  relieving  as  much 
as  possible  the  great  severity  of  what  had  been  called 
“  the  West  Point  system  ”  of  merit  and  demerit,  the 
cadets  had  not  realized  what  was  being  done  for  them, 
and  were  not  appreciative  of  the  favorable  changes 
enjoyed;  these  they  could  not  comprehend  as  well  as 
the  officers  who  had  been  there  before.  Boylike,  on 
several  occasions  they  showed  themselves  careless  of 
their  privileges,  and  taking  advantage  of  the  relaxa¬ 
tion  of  discipline  did  several  mischievous  things. 

On  one  holiday,  for  example,  they  brought  in  the 
night  a  cannon  and  a  cow  into  a  tower  of  one  of  the 
buildings ;  and  the  next  morning  a  cow’s  head  was  seen 
out  of  the  window  of  an  upper  story. 

Immediately,  of  course,  there  was  an  investigation, 
but  the  cadets  would  not  betray  each  other,  so  that  the 
mischief  makers  were  unknown  to  the  authorities.  At 
once  there  was  a  resumption  of  the  old  severe  disci¬ 
pline,  and,  in  fact,  it  was  increased  so  that  after  going 
into  barracks  cadets  were  required,  contrary  to  usage, 
to  walk  post  as  sentries  all  night  in  the  barrack  halls; 
commissioned  instructors  were  ordered  to  live  in  the 
barracks  so  that  every  division  should  have  at  least 
one  army  officer  constantly  on  the  watch  to  supervise 
and  report  delinquencies. 

What  resulted  from  this  sudden  severity,  indicated 

489 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

by  tlie  cases  I  have  given,  affected  the  character  of  the 
corps.  I  found  young  men  who  happened  to  be  seen 
off  limits  running  to  cover,  skulking,  and  hiding  behind 
logs.  It  seemed  to  be  just  the  thing  to  do  to  avoid  an 
officer  and  deceive  him,  and  break  the  regulations  with¬ 
out  scruple. 

On  February  22d,  after  I  took  command,  I  gave  an 
address  to  the  corps  of  cadets  upon  the  character  of 
Washington,  and  showed  them  plainly  what  I  thought 
of  the  conduct  described,  and  I  told  them  how  much 
ashamed  their  friends  were  of  this  evident  want  of 
manliness. 

I  said  further,  that  I  proposed  to  relieve  them 
of  the  stringency  that  had  been  put  upon  them.  The 
guards  would  be  as  they  formerly  were,  and  taken  off 
at  ten  o’clock  at  night;  the  instructors  should  take 
up  their  quarters  elsewhere,  and  no  officer  be  al¬ 
lowed  to  report  them  from  behind  windows  and 
sheltered  places.  I  wished  them  to  respond  to  this 
leniency  by  their  courage  and  manliness,  and  I 
was  going  to  trust  them,  as  cadets  had  always  been 
trusted.  The  response  was  immediate,  and  I  never 
had  cause  to  regret  this  method  of  effecting  the 
change. 

I  studied  very  hard  while  superintendent  to  relieve 
the  overpressure  of  “  the  West  Point  system,”  particu¬ 
larly  of  the  demerit  part,  but  was  never  able  myself  to 
bring  about  any  considerable  change.  There  is  no  re¬ 
lief  from  its  severity  except  in  the  kindness  of  the 
officers  who  are  in  charge. 

I  cannot  help  thinking  that  better  results  would  be 
obtained  at  West  Point  and  Annapolis  by  any  system 
that  leans  strongly  to  trusting  the  young  men.  This 
is  found  to  be  the  case  in  colleges  and  universities 

490 


Superintendent  of  the  U.  S.  Military  Academy 

where  there  is  no  demerit  roll  kept  and  no  daily  publi¬ 
cation  of  delinquencies. 

Those  who  favor  the  West  Point  system,  however, 
claim  that  there  are  no  nobler  men  produced  than 
there.  That  may  be  true,  yet  the  production  of  man¬ 
liness  may  be  due  to  something  else  than  the  terror 
that  is  constantly  experienced  when  a  young  man  is 
listening  for  his  name  at  every  evening  roll  call. 

I  did,  indeed,  save  quite  a  number  of  young  men  to 
the  Military  Academy  who  would  have  been  dismissed 
for  having  exceeded  the  allowed  demerits,  by  having 
them  write  excuses  and  so  reduce  the  number  within 
the  appointed  limit.  Some  of  these  young  men  are  to¬ 
day  the  noblest  and  ablest  we  have  in  public  service. 

In  the  fall  of  1882  I  was  ordered  to  take  command 
of  the  Department  of  the  Platte,  with  headquarters 
at  Omaha,  Neb.  That  department  consisted  of  Iowa, 
Nebraska,  Wyoming,  Utah,  and  a  part  of  Idaho.  The 
Platte  River,  formed  by  a  great  many  smaller  streams, 
which  is  very  broad  near  its  mouth,  has  a  long  run 
from  the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Missouri,  and  the 
greater  portion  of  it  is  within  the  limits  of  that  mili¬ 
tary  department  denominated  “  The  Platte.’’ 

This  department  has  to  do  with  various  Indian 

tribes  and  reservations,  and  the  military  posts  were 

located  with  a  view  to  looking  after  them.  There  was 

already  danger  of  an  outbreak  from  the  Sioux  at  the 

Rosebud  Agency,  situated  just  north  of  Nebraska,  and 

at  the  Pine  Ridge  Agency  farther  to  the  west  in  the 

territory  of  Dakota. 

%/ 

In  the  latter  part  of  my  stay  in  the  Department  of 
the  Platte  there  were  mining  operations  quite  a  dis¬ 
tance  beyond  Fort  Steele  at  Rock  Springs  and  Evans¬ 
ton,  Wyo.  A  large  camp  of  Chinamen  was  located  at 

491 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

Rock  Springs  by  the  owner  of  the  mines;  they  were 
working  quietly  and  faithfully  when  they  were  at¬ 
tacked  by  a  body  of  men  who  purported  to  be  Amer¬ 
ican  miners — really  foreigners  themselves.  These 
Chinamen  were  driven  out  of  their  homes  and  large 
numbers  of  them  were  maltreated;  several  of  them 
were  killed.  The  riot  was  so  serious  that  I  sent  troops 
to  the  spot  who  built  themselves  small  huts,  and,  to 
keep  the  peace  and  assert  the  authority  of  the  Govern¬ 
ment,  remained  there  several  months.  On  apprehen¬ 
sion  of  trouble  at  Evanston,  I  sent  a  detachment  of. 
soldiers  there  also. 

This  was  about  the  beginning  of  the  outrages 
against  the  Chinese  laborers  which  were  also  going  on 
along  the  Pacific  coast  from  the  British  line  to  the 
southern  part  of  California.  The  effort  was  so  con¬ 
tinuous  and  systematic  and  carried  out  with  such  per¬ 
sistency  that  it  could  not  have  been  merely  accidental. 
T  have  recently  understood  that  a  secret  association 
hostile  to  Chinese  laborers  was  mainly  responsible 
for  these  apparent  riots,  for  the  driving  out  of  the 
Chinese,  and  for  the  subsequent  enthusiasm  for  what 
is  known  as  the  Chinese  Exclusion  Law. 

The  National  Park  was  within  the  limits  of  my 
department  and  at  one  time  I  had  to  send  troops  there 
to  preserve  order  and  to  help  the  engineers  as  far  as 
practicable  in  their  surveys  and  in  the  carrying  out  of 
the  contracts  that  resulted  from  them.  I  visited  the 
National  Park  when  in  command  of  the  Department  of 
the  Platte  three  times ;  once  passing  across  the  country 
from  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad  to  Washakie  and 
thence  to  the  Park,  going  most  of  the  way  with  a  pack 
train  and  saddle  horses. 

I  had  the  opportunity  of  being  present  at  the  Rose- 

492 


Superintendent  of  the  U.  S.  Military  Academy 

bud  Agency  and  seeing  the  peculiar  dances  of  the 
Sioux  Indians  gathered  there,  and  later  to  attend  the 
exercise  of  the  sun  dance.  After  that  experience  I 
took  measures  to  prevent  excesses  in  the  Indians’  war¬ 
like  dances,  and  particularly  in  the  sun  dance,  which  is 
regarded  by  them  as  a  peaceful,  though  cruel,  settle¬ 
ment  of  difficulties.  I  use  the  word  cruel,  though  the 
severe  injuries  received  by  the  Indians  were  self- 
inflicted. 

This  department,  like  that  of  the  Columbia,  covered 
much  territory,  with  as  many  posts  to  visit;  restless 
Indians  here  also  had  to  be  watched ;  so  that  my  time 
was  principally  consumed  by  public  duty. 

On  February  14, 1884,  my  son  Guy  married  Jeanie, 
daughter  of  Hon.  James  M.  Woolworth,  of  Omaha. 
They  have  had  two  children,  Helen,  and  Otis  Wool- 
worth  Howard. 


493 


CHAPTER  LXV 

IN  EUROPE,  EGYPT,  AND  CONSTANTINOPLE 

EARLY  in  the  season  of  1884,  I  made  np  my  mind, 
if  possible,  to  go  to  Europe.  General  Sherman, 
after  his  European  tour,  had  told  me  that  I  ought  not 
to  undertake  it  until  I  had  at  least  seven  thousand 
dollars  ahead.  I  was  aware  that  I  had  not  means 
enough  to  take  my  family;  I  was  sure,  however,  that 
if  I  waited  until  I  laid  up  that  sum,  I  should  never  go. 
One  day  Mr.  Lemon,  the  editor  of  the  National  Tribune 
of  Washington,  D.  C.,  was  on  a  visit  to  Omaha.  He 
said  he  would  pay  me  for  monographs  on  the  Civil 
War  if  I  could  furnish  one  a  week.  I  thereupon  en¬ 
tered  into  a  contract  with  him  which  aided  me  to  take 
the  trip.  My  son  Jamie  was  studying  in  Germany 
and  would  meet  me  at  Antwerp,  and  we  two  together 
could  make  a  reasonably  extensive  observation. 

General  Sheridan,  then  commanding  the  army,  gave 
me  a  leave  of  absence,  and  further  extended  the  time 
by  detailing  me  to  attend  the  French  maneuvers  of 
the  Seventeenth  Corps  d’Armee  in  southern  France. 
Furthermore  he  instructed  me  to  proceed  to  view  the 
English  war  operations  near  the  upper  Nile  in  Africa 
and  report  upon  them.  The  campaign  for  the  relief 
of  Khartoom  and  General  Gordon  had  just  then  been 
inaugurated. 

I  sailed  from  New  York  March  15,  1884,  on  the 

494 


In  Europe,  Egypt,  and  Constantinople 

steamer  Belgenland  of  the  Red  Star  line.  I  had  a  very 
pleasant  voyage  and  was  as  usual  not  seasick. 

My  son  James  W.  Howard  had  been  for  some  time 
a  student  attending  lectures  at  the  University  of  Got¬ 
tingen.  He  came  to  Antwerp  and  was  on  hand  soon 
after  I  landed.  Speaking  French  and  German,  he 
became  my  guide  and  interpreter.  In  Antwerp  we 
saw  the  panorama  of  Waterloo  and  different  works 
of  art ;  and  became  acquainted  with  some  ambi¬ 
tious  young  artists  who  were  studying,  sketching,  and 
painting  in  the  city.  One  of  them  I  remember  was 
very  kind  to  us.  He  was  of  good  talent  and  promise. 
He  became  offended  at  me,  however,  at  last,  because 
one  day  when  I  was  with  him  I  compared  a  beautiful 
chromo  with  an  oil  painting,  saying  that  in  my  judg¬ 
ment  the  chromo  was  nicer  than  the  painting.  After 
that  weak  assertion  of  mine,  the  young  man,  enthusi¬ 
astic  and  loyal  to  his  art,  would  speak  to  me  no  more, 
and  I  could  not  blame  him. 

At  Brussels  we  enjoyed  the  fine  architectural  build¬ 
ings  and  such  pictures  of  the  old  masters  as  everybody 
sees. 

My  son  and  I  had  a  good  visit  to  the  battlefield  of 
Waterloo.  As  soon  as  I  came  in  sight  of  the  British 
Monument,  approaching  it  from  the  north,  I  could  see 
the  favorable  military  position  which  Wellington  took 
into  his  view  when  he  was  preparing  for  battle.  The 
grounds  have  been  disturbed  by  landscape  gradings, 
and  yet  there  is  the  well-defined  crest  of  a  long  ridge 
behind  which  the  artillery  and  infantry  of  Wellington 
were  formed  for  action.  You  can  see  where  the 
sunken  road  once  was,  and  easily  how  it  broke  up  Na¬ 
poleon’s  cavalry  charge. 

I  was  much  interested  in  looking  at  the  walled  ham- 

495 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

let  of  Hougomont  which  Colonel  MacDonnell,  the  in¬ 
domitable  Scotchman,  defended  to  the  last.  It  was  in 
front  of  Wellington’s  line  of  defense,  as  Devil’s  Den 
was  out  in  front  of  Meade’s  defensive  line  at  Gettys¬ 
burg.  Hougomont  and  Devil’s  Den  were  alike  useful 
to  Wellington  and  Meade  in  contributing  to  final 
victory.  These  two  great  battles  furnish  epochs  in 
history,  and  results  hard  to  compare  or  enumerate. 

My  son  had  been  in  Paris  before  and  at  our  Hotel 
de  Tibre,  and  was  glad  to  take  me  to  see  the  magnifi¬ 
cent  public  buildings,  and  also  the  statuary  and  paint¬ 
ings  in  the  Louvre.  Our  eight  days  here  were  busy 
ones  indeed.  Tourists  in  that  time  could  not  have 
seen  more  of  Paris.  During  my  visit  the  Hon.  Levi 
P.  Morton  was  our  minister  to  France.  He  received 
us  kindly,  but  we  did  not  stay  long  enough  to  accept 
his  proffered  hospitality  and  entertainment. 

Late  Sunday  night,  April  6tli,  we  set  out  for  Mar¬ 
seilles.  We  took  “  third  class  ”  on  the  cars.  I  had 
two  objects  in  this.  One  was  economy  and  the  other 
was  to  see  the  people.  My  son  readily  conversed  with 
the  passengers  in  French  and  I  could  understand  them 
better  the  longer  I  was  with  them.  I  noticed,  how¬ 
ever,  that  I  was  always  treated  with  marked  politeness 
and  a  deference  they  did  not  show  to  one  another.  I 
asked  one  intelligent-looking  man  the  reason  for  this; 
he  said,  uVous  etes  un  savant ,”  meaning  that  I  was 
a  student  or  scholar.  I  wished  to  know  what  made 
him  think  so.  He  drew  his  hand  across  his  forehead,  ; 
and  then  called  attention  to  the  crowsfeet  beside  my 
eyes.  Of  course  this  distinction  was  amusing  and 
pleasant  to  me  and  to  my  son,  who,  they  were  sure,  was 
a  student,  though  he  purported  to  be  only  a  guide  and 
interpreter.  But  this  feeling  hindered  the  more  fa- 

496 " 


In  Europe,  Egypt,  and  Constantinople 

miliar  comradeship  which  I  desired.  However,  in 
France  we  were  not  only  treated  with  deference  but 
with  uniform  kindness. 

Our  visit  in  Marseilles  was  greatly  enjoyed.  Notre 
Dame,  the  grand  church,  impressed  me,  and  not  less  so 
when  a  special  guide  took  us  to  see  the  offerings  to  the 
Lady,  such  as  oars,  ankle  supports,  canes,  crutches, 
and  other  things  which  were  donated,  coming  from 
those  who  had  been  healed.  The  guide  smiled  in¬ 
credulously  when  he  said  that  the  Mother  and  Child 
had  come  down  miraculously  and  rescued  drowning 
sailors  in  the  harbor  and  cured  the  maimed  whose  love 
offerings  we  were  beholding.  It  is  not  a  bad  super¬ 
stition  to  suppose  that  the  loving  Virgin  with  the  Child 
in  her  arms  had  come  down  and  exerted  this  healing 
power,  but  I  felt  that  the  guide  himself  did  not  suffi¬ 
ciently  credit  the  tales. 

Marseilles  is  an  old  city,  and  it  makes  a  lasting  im¬ 
pression  to  look  upon  the  streets  that  have  been  in  the 
same  condition  for  ages.  They  were  narrow,  thronged 
with  people,  and  nowhere  in  good  police.  However, 
many  parts  of  Marseilles  show  architectural  beauty 
and  modem  improvements. 

On  Thursday,  April  10th,  we  embarked  for  Alex¬ 
andria  on  a  good-sized  steamer,  La  Seyne,  and  found 
that  there  were  three  divisions  of  people  on  the 
steamer.  One  was  the  first  class ;  the  next,  the  second 
class;  and  the  third,  the  steerage.  The  second  class 
was  the  most  numerous  and  consisted  of  very  re¬ 
spectable  people  hailing  from  every  civilized  nation. 
For  the  first  class  there  was  but  one  passenger,  an 
English  gentleman,  who  became  very  lonely  and 
crossed  the  line  of  separation  to  converse  with  other 
passengers.  We  took  passage  in  the  second  class,  a 

497 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

slight  promotion  from  our  railroad  travel  from  Paris 
to  Marseilles. 

It  was  delightful  to  be  upon  the  Mediterranean,  of 
whose  islands  and  coasts  I  had  from  my  childhood  read 
interesting  stories.  The  weather  could  have  hardly 
been  more  mild  and  pleasant  and  we  spent  much  of 
our  time  on  the  upper  deck  or  on  the  bridge  with  the 
politest  and  most  accommodating  of  captains,  so  that 
we  were  shown  everything  that  eye  could  take  in  as 
we  coasted  along  eastward. 

There  was  one  attractive  French  family  on  the 
steamer  who  seemed  to  enjoy  our  society ;  three  ladies 
and  a  gentleman,  very  tidy  in  their  dress  and  sprightly 
in  their  conversation.  There  was  besides  a  retired 
English  army  officer  about  sixty  years  of  age — a  bona 
fide  Englishman  in  every  respect.  He  had  traveled; 
had  seen  the  world,  and  was  willing  to  admit  when 
driven  to  extremes  that  the  United  States  was  already 
on  the  road  to  coequal  prosperity  and  rank  with  Great 
Britain.  I  only  wondered,  as  perhaps  he  himself  did 
with  regard  to  us,  why  he  had  allowed  himself  to  be 
consigned  to  the  second  class ;  probably  because  of  the 
price. 

In  good  time  we  arrived  at  Naples  and  anchored 
out  in  the  offing.  Our  ship  had  hardly  stopped  before 
she  was  thronged  with  small  boats  of  different  sizes. 
After  having  taken  a  general  survey  of  the  situation, 
of  the  city  so  beautiful  in  the  morning  light,  of  the 
islands  in  sight,  and  of  the  mountains,  particularly  of 
Vesuvius  of  which  we  had  heard  so  much,  we  slowly 
descended  to  take  one  of  the  most  commodious  of  the 
transport  boats.  The  man  in  charge  was  able  to  talk 
a  little  English  and  was  very  polite  and  accommodat¬ 
ing.  He  sold  us  our  passage  at  a  reasonable  rate  and 

498 


In  Europe,  Egypt,  and  Constantinople 

told  us  distinctly  that  he  would  take  us  for  the  price 
over  to  the  shore  and  back,  for  our  steamer  was  bound 
for  Alexandria  and  we  were  to  be  allowed  so  many 
hours  ashore.  As  we  were  being  rowed  across  the 
harbor  I  looked  up  and  down  the  coast  and  said  to  my 
son,  “  How  like  our  Seattle  are  the  shores  and  ap¬ 
proaches  to  the  city  of  Naples  and  the  city  itself.  ” 
I  was  not  disappointed  in  any  view  that  we  obtained 
that  day — the  clearness  of  the  cloudless  skies,  the  soft¬ 
ness  of  the  atmosphere,  and  the  singular  beauty  and 
charm  of  all  things  that  the  sunlight  of  Italy  touched. 
As  in  Marseilles,  there  was  every  evidence  of  modern 
civilization — streets  that  were  broad  and  well  kept, 
houses  that  were  of  every  variety,  from  the  neat  home¬ 
like  cottage  to  the  palatial  residence ;  but  not  far  from 
the  main  thoroughfare  you  struck  throngs  of  the  poor 
people  and  streets  so  narrow  that  the  buildings  al¬ 
most  touched  across  them  in  their  juttings.  Along 
with  all  the  poverty  that  comes  with  the  poor  tenement 
structures,  there  was  no  cleanliness  observable,  and  I 
do  not  wonder  that  contagious  diseases  have  often  dec¬ 
imated  the  population.  I  said  to  myself  as  we  turned 
back  to  the  quay :  “  It  does  not  do  to  go  too  near  to 
those  places  which  appear  so  beautiful  at  a  distanced 
As  we  undertook  to  reembark,  a  boat,  entirely  differ¬ 
ent  from  that  in  which  we  came,  was  at  the  dock  for 
our  accommodation.  The  man  in  charge  cried  out 
that  the  boats  all  belonged  to  the  same  company.  We 
stepped  in  and  were  rowed  halfway  to  our  steamer, 
when  the  same  man  stopped  the  oarsmen  and  demanded 
of  us  another  fare.  Of  course  I  understood  the 
swindle  and  naturally  made  objection.  The  man 
talked  to  me  angrily  in  a  language  I  could  not  inter¬ 
pret.  With  some  of  my  old  impatience  of  spirit  which 

499 


I 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

I  have  never  been  able  wholly  to  quell,  I  seized  this 
Italian  by  the  lower  part  of  his  blouse  and  roughly 
set  him  down  upon  a  cross  seat.  Just  then  my  son 
cried  out  as  he  saw  the  man’s  motions,  “  Father,  fa¬ 
ther,  his  knife !  ”  He  did  not  strike  me  with  it,  but  I 
was  forced,  as  were  the  other  passengers,  to  pay  a  sec¬ 
ond  fare.  I  have  never  recovered  from  the  feeling  I 
had,  to  be  thus  publicly  robbed;  and  I  wondered  how 
the  authorities  of  Naples  could  be  willing  to  have  an 
abiding  reputation  for  mistreating  strangers. 

The  next  day  by  3  a.m.  we  were  on  deck  for  the 
passage  of  the  Straits  of  Messina.  Too  calm  they 
then  were  for  any  historic  purpose. 

The  remainder  of  the  voyage  from  Naples  to  Alex¬ 
andria  was  a  safe  one  and  in  every  way  enjoyable. 
Easter  Day  afforded  us  a  delightful  song  service. 
When  the  sea  was  calm  and  the  sun  shining,  the  scen¬ 
ery,  as  long  as  you  could  see  the  land,  was  delightful. 
The  nights  also  were  charming ;  we  had  a  bright  dome 
of  abundant  starlight  over  our  heads,  and  all  the  way 
to  Alexandria  mild  April  weather. 

Upon  the  Mediterranean  with  such  perfect  weather 
and  favorable  skies  it  was  hard  to  recall  either  the  dis¬ 
asters  of  HCneas  or  the  shipwreck  of  St.  Paul. 

Canon  Kingsley  in  “ Hypatia”  has  given  such  a  lively 
description  of  the  old  landing  places  in  Alexandria 
and  of  the  wharf  loaded  with  grain  and  other  produce 
that  Jamie  and  I  became  curious  to  compare  the  mod¬ 
em  with  the  ancient.  Indeed,  there  had  not  been 
much  change  imtil  recently.  Now  the  English  and 
French  occupation  can  be  felt  as  you  step  upon  the 
shore.  Crowds  of  people  meet  a  boat  load  of  passen¬ 
gers  and  show  the  utmost  eagerness  and  enthusiasm; 
and  there  are  still  on  the  quay,  as  of  old,  piles  and 

500 


In  Europe,  Egypt,  and  Constantinople 

piles  of  produce,  merchandise,  and  luggage  of  every 
description,  from  the  handbag  to  the  commercial  trav¬ 
eler’s  strong  box. 

Jamie  was  getting  wiser  as  we  journeyed  on,  so 
that  when  at  least  twenty  guides  presented  themselves, 
stretching  out  their  hands  and  endeavoring  with  much 
confusion  of  tongues  to  speak  English,  he  quietly  re¬ 
marked,  “  Je  suis  un  guide,  monsieur .”  However,  he 
sought  for  one  determined-looking  man  and  said  to 
him  in  French  that  he  would  pay  only  him  to  get 
our  luggage  from  the  dock  to  the  Abbot  Hotel. 
That  well-chosen  dragoman,  if  we  may  so  call  him, 
selected  our  luggage  and  had  us  delivered  in  good 
form  at  the  public  house,  but  he  could  not  prevent  our 
being  thronged  all  the  way  and  even  after  our  arrival 
by  overfriendly  natives,  each  of  whom  wanted  to  do 
something,  be  it  ever  so  little,  for  our  comfort. 
Jamie  obtained  some  large  copper  coins  of  the  value  of 
perhaps  half  a  cent  each,  and  he  very  graciously  ex¬ 
tended  one  of  these  to  every  man  or  boy  who  had  been 
of  the  least  service.  That  was  his  polite  return  for 
a  slight  favor.  It  worked  better  with  him  than  with 
me,  for  I  had  made  no  such  provision,  so  that  among 
the  irresistible  beggars  my  small  change  soon  disap¬ 
peared.  My  banker,  Jamie,  wisely  abstained  from  too 
frequent  replenishment  of  my  denuded  pockets. 

A  whole  book  could  be  written  on  our  new  experi¬ 
ences  in  Alexandria ;  the  statues,  old  caskets  in  stone, 
mummies,  all  were  reminders  of  ancient  history  and 
art  which  one  finds  in  the  principal  collections. 

During  my  short  stay  in  Alexandria  I  was  espe¬ 
cially  interested  in  the  peculiar  dress  and  manners  of 
the  people.  I  would  stop  long  and  look  at  caravans 
of  camels  and  men  of  the  East  just  loading  for  their 

501 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

departure.  I  enjoyed  noticing  tlie  women  sitting  back 
in  shady  places;  of  course,  thinly  clad,  but  in  gar¬ 
ments  that  had  seen  much  service,  and  always  with  the 
ugly  veils  below  their  eyes.  There  would  be  adult 
groups  by  themselves,  or  women  with  children,  but 
men  with  large  turbans  sat  in  stolid  dignity — I  mean, 
of  course,  those  who  are  not  servants  and  waiters — 
they  were  always  separate. 

As  early  as  I  could,  I  went  to  the  principal  Chris¬ 
tian  Mission.  The  “  home  ”  and  the  school  building 
were  just  then  empty  because  it  was  in  vacation,  so 
that  I  did  not  see  either  teachers  or  scholars.  One 
day,  however,  we  journeyed  to  Rameses,  the  place 
familiar  to  readers  of  the  Scriptures.  There  Rev. 
Mr.  Ewing  and  his  family  had  a  summer  residence 
where  they  stayed  during  the  hottest  season.  As  soon 
as  I  entered  their  principal  room  I  felt  as  if  I  were  in 
the  Knited  States.  It  was  a  Christian  home.  The 
mottoes  over  the  doors,  the  few  select  books,  including 
the  Bible  and  hymn  book  on  the  table,  and  the  rocking 
chairs  that  had  found  their  way  even  to  Rameses; 
the  familiar  pictures  on  the  wall  and  the  tidy  lounge 
underneath — everything  reminded  one  of  an  American 
home!  I  felt  this  more  as  we  sat  down  to  the  noon¬ 
day  meal  with  the  family,  when  Mr.  Ewing  bowed  his 
head  and  in  a  few  words  gave  God  thanks  for  comforts 
and  blessings. 

We  visited  one  Egyptian  residence  and  saw  all  we 
were  allowed  to  see.  It  was  an  old  type  of  living  and 
how  different  from  this  home  at  Rameses!  We  at 
one  time  looked  in  upon  a  school  taught  after  the  Mo¬ 
hammedan  fashion:  ten  or  twelve  boys  sitting  on  the 
dirt  floor,  going  over  and  over  again  extracts  from  the 
Koran  or  from  Sanscrit  selections.  The  missionary 

502 


In  Europe,  Egypt,  and  Constantinople 

teaching  of  some  two  hundred  pupils  in  Alexandria 
was  far  different.  Certainly  the  new  was  better  than 
the  old. 

I  met  in  Alexandria  English  officers  who  were  re¬ 
turning  from  the  great  expedition  in  upper  Egypt, 
which  at  one  time  it  was  hoped  would  relieve  the  pres¬ 
sure  upon  Chinese  Gordon  and  set  him  free.  Gordon 
before  this  had  been  slain  and  the  expedition  given 
over  for  the  time.  One  officer,  Lieutenant  Colonel 
Ardagh  of  the  Royal  Engineers,  took  me  to  liis  tempo¬ 
rary  office  and  showed  me  sketches  of  the  fields  of 
battle  in  Egypt,  and  explained  to  me  with  so  much  of 
detail  all  that  had  lately  been  done  that  I  was  able  to 
make  a  full  report  to  my  Government.  No  officer  of 
our  own  army  could  have  treated  me  with  more  kind¬ 
ness  than  did  this  young  engineer,  and  I  was  exceed¬ 
ingly  grateful. 

On  Friday,  April  18th,  we  set  out  for  Cairo.  The 
English  railroad,  here  as  everywhere,  was  very  com¬ 
plete  and  the  journey  comfortable  all  the  way.  The 
rate  of  travel,  not  then  very  rapid,  gave  the  observer 
every  opportunity  of  taking  into  account  this  curious 
country  of  the  Nile.  The  unique  method  of  plowing 
with  the  buffalo,  using  a  stick  for  a  plowshare,  the 
raising  of  water  by  old-fashioned  machinery,  the  ac¬ 
tivity  of  the  people  at  that  season  in  plowing  and 
planting  very  much  as  the  people  do  in  Mexico,  took 
our  attention.  After  all,  however,  I  was  disappointed 
in  this  portion  of  the  Nile  country.  It  seemed  so  like 
something  that  had  been,  and  of  which  there  was  now 
but  a  faint  reminder  of  the  past.  Here  everybody 
spoke  of  streets  that  once  existed,  of  towns  that  had 
almost  disappeared,  and  the  bulk  of  the  inhabitants 
appeared  to  have  little  hope  of  anything  better,  and 

503 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

therefore  showed  little  vitality.  It  seemed  bootless 
in  this  weary  land  to  attempt  to  engraft  a  new  civiliza¬ 
tion  upon  the  old. 

Arriving  at  Cairo,  we  found  a  commodious  inn,  the 
Hotel  d’ Orient,  and  soon  after  met  the  missionaries 
who  had  come  from  England  and  the  United  States. 
We  found  here  missionary  work  going  on.  There 
was  not  only  the  diligent  teaching  of  children,  but 
the  faithful  care  of  the  sick  in  modern  hospitals. 
Our  experiences  were  similar  to  those  in  Alexan¬ 
dria  in  visiting  the  museums,  mosques,  and  pub¬ 
lic  buildings  where  the  Khedive  was  ostensibly  the 
head  of  the  Government,  but  the  English  and  French 
commissioners,  because  they  controlled  the  finances, 
had  the  real  power.  There  was  considerable  discon¬ 
tent  and  fretting  among  the  common  people.  The 
French  were  not  satisfied,  and  the  populace  in  general 
expressed  dislike  of  the  English.  One  could,  how¬ 
ever,  perceive  that  English  power  there  was  safety, 
and,  as  a  rule,  a  just  administration  of  affairs.  We 
were  very  much  interested  to  see  how  a  body  of  Eng¬ 
lish  cavalry  were  kept  in  bivouac  in  some  open  spaces 
in  Cairo.  Their  camp  was  in  order,  but  the  men  were 
behaving  very  much  as  if  they  were  commissioned  offi¬ 
cers;  they  were  lying  around  in  groups  under  shady 
trees  and  entertaining  each  other  with  songs  and 
stories,  as  we  were  wont  to  do  when  times  of  rest  came. 
We  found  that  each  soldier  had  employed  what  was 
called  a  “  fellah  ”  to  take  care  of  his  horse,  to  groom, 
saddle,  bridle,  and  bring  him  when  wanted.  Surely 
it  was  almost  as  good  as  a  commission  to  the  soldier 
thus  to  be  able  to  keep  a  servant  at  his  command.  It 
is  human  nature  for  a  man  to  wish  to  have  somebody 
below  him. 


504 


In  Europe,  Egypt,  and  Constantinople 

The  next  day  after  our  arrival  at  Cairo  we  took  our 
way  to  the  Pyramids — from  start  to  finish  pursued 
by  an  army  of  beggars.  My  son’s  precaution  to  se¬ 
cure  a  proper  dragoman  and  give  him  entire  charge 
during  the  journey  was  indeed  a  wise  one.  In  ascend¬ 
ing  the  large  Pyramid  an  English  gentleman  who  had 
not  taken  that  precaution  was  persecuted  by  volunteer 
helpers.  One  would  aid  him  here  and  another  there 
as  he  ascended  the  four-feet  blocks,  from  one  terrace 
to  another.  At  last  he  became  furious  and  swore  at 
them  and  said  if  they  did  not  let  him  alone  he  would 
throw  them  to  the  bottom,  and  I  think  he  could  have 
done  it.  Our  dragoman  protected  us  for  the  most 
part  against  such  persecution.  After  our  descent 
from  the  lofty  height  I  was  left  alone  with  a  guide  to 
enter  rooms  that  had  been  opened  in  the  base  of  the 
Pyramid.  I  succeeded  in  getting  up  several  difficult 
steps  until  we  came  to  one  room  in  which  was  found  a 
sarcophagus  long  enough  and  deep  enough  to  take  in 
a  giant  man.  The  huge  casket  was  made  of  granite. 
After  ruminating  awhile  upon  the  object  of  these 
chambers  and  of  what  they  contained,  I  turned 
back.  At  one  point  we  came  to  a  sharp  descent  of 
four  feet.  The  stone  was  as  smooth  as  polished  marble 
and  of  great  hardness.  My  guide  turned  around  and 
let  himself  down  to  the  next  level.  This  with  one  hand 
I  could  not  do.  The  guide  stood  back,  and  looking  up 
at  me  smiling  said,  “  Backsheesh,  backsheesh,”  mean¬ 
ing  a  special  reward.  I  was  helpless,  so  I  said,  “  All 
right,”  and  sprang  into  his  sturdy  arms  without  being 
bruised,  as  I  must  have  been  had  I  tried  to  descend 
alone.  I  had  given  away  all  my  change,  but  having  a 
gold  collar  button,  I  pulled  it  out  and  gave  it  to  him. 
He  seemed  satisfied  and  we  worked  our  way  slowly  to 

505 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

the  outside  of  the  Pyramid.  The  guide  then  hastened 
to  find  my  son  and  told  him  that  my  collar  button 
was  not  good  for  him,  so  Jamie  redeemed  it  for  the 
sum  of  thirteen  cents. 

A  bright  little  boy  about  ten  years  old  was  very  at¬ 
tentive  to  me  all  day.  He  led  me  to  see  the  great 
Sphinx  and  showed  me  the  curious  phenomenon,  al¬ 
ways  affectionately  patting  my  hand  and  running  along 
holding  my  fingers.  I  enjoyed  the  sprightliness  and 
playful  ways  of  the  child.  My  son  had  given  him  a 
small  reward,  but  when  we  had  stepped  into  our  car¬ 
riage  and  had  started,  the  boy  ran  after  the  carriage 
screaming  and  crying,  “  Backsheesh,  backsheesh !  ” 
In  his  judgment  I  had  not  given  him  sufficient  reward. 
He  stopped  his  crying  only  when  the  driver  threat¬ 
ened  him  with  his  whip,  and  our  dragoman  shook  his 
fist  at  him.  Imagine  fifty  others  besides  ourselves  un¬ 
dertaking  that  day  to  satisfy  that  large  swarm 
of  Egyptian  “  fellahs  ”  who  were  self-constituted 
guides.  Poor  people  out  there  in  the  desert!  This 
was  their  only  source  of  revenue. 

In  Cairo  we  found  the  heat  intense.  The  ther¬ 
mometer  ran  to  110°  in  the  shade. 

We  next  went  back  to  Alexandria  and  returned  the 
visits  of  our  consul  and  American  residents,  all  of 
whom  appeared  delighted  to  give  us  entertainment. 
The  Quinebaug ,  a  United  States  naval  vessel  com¬ 
manded  by  Captain  Ludlow,  was  in  the  harbor.  He 
had  not  only  paid  me  a  special  visit  but  invited  my  son 
and  myself  to  accept  his  hospitality  on  shipboard. 
We  were  to  sail  with  him  from  Alexandria  to  Smyrna. 
I  had  been  instructed  before  leaving  Washington  to 
concert  with  the  commander  of  the  Eastern  Squadron, 
Admiral  Baldwin,  in  the  matter  of  observing  the  oper- 

506 


In  Europe,  Egypt,  and  Constantinople 

ations  of  the  British  in  Egypt.  Having  already  ex¬ 
changed  letters  with  the  admiral  I  was  glad  enough  to 
go  on  with  Captain  Ludlow  to  meet  him.  We  em¬ 
barked  about  three  o’clock  in  the  afternoon,  April 
21st,  and  were  hospitably  entertained.  Several  offi¬ 
cers  came  to  pay  their  respects  to  me  as  the  repre¬ 
sentative  of  the  army.  During  the  night  the  Quine- 
baug  pulled  up  anchor  and  set  out  for  Smyrna.  We 
moved  slowly  along  during  Tuesday  and  Wednesday 
and  found  ourselves  passing  numerous  islands  of  the 
archipelago.  Several  of  them  like  Chios,  Patmos,  and 
Samos,  had  familiar  names.  Thursday  at  sunrise  the 
Quinebaug  came  in  sight  of  Smyrna.  The  view  was 
simply  magnificent  as  we  entered  the  harbor.  A  glo¬ 
rious  sight  in  the  morning  light  was  the  panorama 
framed  in  by  the  hills  and  the  mountains — all  as 
charming  as  Naples,  and  something  like  it  in  the  dis¬ 
tance.  We  soon  saw  the  admiral’s  ship  in  the  offing. 
In  the  afternoon  Admiral  Baldwin  sent  his  barge  with 
an  officer  to  take  me  to  his  quarters.  Then  I  was  pre¬ 
sented  to  many  more  officers  of  the  navy,  some  of 
whom  I  had  known  before.  It  was  not  long  before  I 
went  ashore.  We  made  the  acquaintance  of  our  con¬ 
sul,  Mr.  Stevens,  and  also  of  our  excellent  missionary 
of  the  American  board,  Dr.  Bowen.  I  had  heard  much 
said  against  the  work  of  the  foreign  missions,  so  that 
I  was  curious  here,  as  I  was  in  Alexandria,  to  see  all 
that  was  going  on.  There  was  a  grand  missionary 
work  in  progress;  a  fine  school  also  where  some  two 
hundred  students  were  attending.  The  effect  of  the 
faithful  teaching  of  the  missionary  was  to  stir  up  the 
Armenians  and  interest  them  to  erect  larger  buildings 
and  operate  larger  schools.  One’s  only  feeling  of  re¬ 
gret  is  that  the  privileges  cannot  be  extended  to  the 

507 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

Mohammedans.  I  was  invited  one  evening  to  address 
the  English-speaking  people  at  the  missionary  chapel, 
and  I  had  a  full  house.  One  helper,  an  Armenian,  who 
could  not  speak  English,  looking  up  into  my  face, 
seemed  to  be  filled  with  enthusiasm  and  emotion. 
When  asked  if  he  could  understand  what  General  How¬ 
ard  said,  he  answered  in  his  own  tongue,  “  No,  but  I 
understand  the  spirit  of  it.” 

It  was  a  great  privilege  to  visit  the  tomb  of  Poly¬ 
carp  and  to  take  in  all  we  could  of  Smyrna,  which  is 
the  only  one  to  remain  of  all  those  cities  mentioned 
in  the  Revelation.  Smyrna  has  surely  fulfilled  the 
prophecy.  We  passed  by  rail  out  to  Ephesus  through 
rolling  uplands  like  the  hill  country  of  Massachusetts. 
We  were  greatly  interested  in  the  Temple  of  Diana. 
Many  pillars  of  the  great  structure  had  been  excavated 
and  each  pillar  was  lying  upon  the  surface  of  the 
ground.  There  is  very  little  of  Ephesus  to  be  seen. 
It  has  quite  another  environment  from  the  old;  still 
we  found  the  debris  of  a  large  city.  There  were  the 
remnants  of  the  amphitheatre  and  a  place  where  many 
of  the  ancient  tombs  had  been  uncovered.  There  were 
fragments  of  the  outer  walls,  and  sheep  cotes  and 
shelters  within  them,  always  opening  outward.  All 
the  fields  round  about  were  roughly  cultivated.  These 
lands  were  hard  to  work,  for  they  seemed  as  if  sown 
with  fragments  of  rock.  Men  were  at  that  time 
plowing  among  them  and  gathering  them  into  heaps. 
It  was  difficult  to  realize  that  this  was  the  city  which 
the  Apostle  Paul  had  so  often  visited. 

We  returned  from  Ephesus  to  Smyrna  and  to  the 
Quinebaug.  On  Sunday,  Admiral  Baldwin  invited 
all  hands  to  religious  services  aboard  his  flag  ship  the 
Lancaster ,  on  which  Captain  Potter  after  service  kept 

508 


In  Europe,  Egypt,  and  Constantinople 

us  to  lunch  at  his  mess.  Our  stay  on  the  Quinebaug 
gave  me  for  the  first  time  some  knowledge  of  the  cus¬ 
toms  of  the  navy  with  which  I  had  never  been  ac- 
acquainted.  There  was  ceremony  which  was  kept  up 
with  great  strictness,  as  it  doubtless  has  to  be  where 
many  people  are  confined  to  so  small  a  space  as  on  a 
man-of-war. 

I  soon  took  passage  from  Smyrna  to  Alexandria  on 
the  merchant  steamer  Cambodge.  Captain  Ludlow 
courteously  sent  us  in  his  own  boat  to  the  steamer  and 
we  embarked  for  Constantinople  about  three  o’clock 
on  Thursday  afternoon. 

After  two  nights  and  a  day  on  board  the  Cambodge 
we  were  in  Constantinople  and  went  to  the  Hotel  de 
Pesth.  The  first  night  in  Constantinople  I  wrote  in 
my  note  book,  “  People,  people !  Dogs,  dogs !  and  a 
city  on  hills.”  As  our  funds  were  rather  limited 
Jamie  and  I  took  rooms  in  the  fifth  story  of  the  hotel. 
We  had  not  been  in  the  city  a  day  before  the  English 
ambassador,  Earl  Dufferin,  climbed  the  rickety  stairs 
to  our  rooms  and  gave  us  a  cordial  invitation  to  spend 
all  the  time  we  could  at  the  British  Embassy.  I  had 
been  able  to  give  him  and  those  with  him  special  atten¬ 
tion  some  years  before  in  Omaha,  Neb.,  when  he  was 
on  a  tour  of  observation,  and  he  appeared  more  than 
glad  to  reciprocate.  Lady  Dufferin  was  to  have  that 
night  some  amateur  theatricals.  We  did  not  stay 
very  much  at  the  Embassy,  but  we  did  attend  the  the¬ 
atricals  and  once  we  dined  with  the  family. 

Earl  Dufferin  was  a  noble  soul  and  an  able  man, 
and  his  wife  was  a  beautiful  woman,  much  beloved  by 
all  connected  with  the  Embassy,  and  by  all  who  knew 
her. 

There  is  much  to  see  in  Constantinople.  We  vis- 

509 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

ited  our  minister,  my  friend,  General  Lew  Wallace, 
whom  I  longed  to  see.  From  his  rooms  in  the  suburb 
of  Therapia  we  went  across  the  Bosphorus  to  see 
where  Xenophon  encamped  his  10,000.  We  enjoyed 
Robert  College  and  all  it  represented.  When  I  ad¬ 
dressed  the  students  there,  perhaps  two  hundred  of 
them,  from  Bulgaria  and  other  states,  I  naturally 

inquired,  “  How  many  can  understand  me  in  Eng- 

\ 

lish ?  ”  Nine  tenths  of  the  young  men  immediately 
responded  by  holding  up  their  hands.  It  was  during 
this  visit  with  General  Wallace  that  he  told  me  that  he 
had  written  “  Ben-Hur  ”  before  he  went  to  Palestine, 
and  that  he  had  his  book  with  him  on  his  first  visit  to 
consult  and  see  how  near  he  had  come  to  veritable 
descriptions  of  places  in  the  Holy  Lands. 

The  Sultan  of  Turkey  invited  Admiral  Baldwin 
and  his  officers,  also  myself  and  son,  to  dine  at  the 
palace  with  him.  General  Wallace  went  with  us  and 
introduced  us  to  his  majesty.  When  we  were  seated 
at  the  table,  the  Sultan  at  one  end  and  his  two  sons 
at  the  other,  the  guests  were  distributed  so  that  the 
members  of  the  cabinet  and  chief  officers  of  the  Turk¬ 
ish  army  and  navy  should  sit  between  any  two  of  the 
guests.  It  was  to  be  a  dinner  to  the  army  and  navy 
of  the  United  States.  I  had  on  my  left  the  Minister 
of  War  and  on  my  right  some  other  cabinet  official. 
Neither  of  them  could  speak  English  or  French,  but 
they  smiled  upon  me  and  kindly  helped  me  at  table. 
The  young  princes  were  near  me.  I  was  told  that 
they  were  good  French  scholars,  but  they  did  not  ven¬ 
ture  to  talk  except  in  monosyllables.  The  richness  of 
the  plate  and  the  multitude  of  courses  it  would  take 
an  observant  news  correspondent  or  an  American  lady 
to  describe.  After  dinner  we  passed  into  a  long  hall, 

510 


In  Europe,  Egypt,  and  Constantinople 

where  we  had  a  charming  reception  by  the  Sultan, 
who  was  flanked  by  his  cabinet  and  staff.  General 
Wallace  presented  us  all.  The  Sultan  spoke  to  me 
very  kindly,  particularly  mentioning  the  abundant 
services  that  he  had  heard  I  had  rendered  my  own 
country,  and  referred  to  my  armless  sleeve  as  a  badge. 
He  was  short  in  stature  and  had  very  much  the  ap¬ 
pearance  of  the  educated  Japanese;  his  eyes  were  ex¬ 
ceedingly  dark,  bright,  and  piercing,  and  his  smile 
that  came  and  went  was  very  pleasant. 

Captain  Henry  Otis  Dwight,  the  son  of  a  mission¬ 
ary  and  a  missionary  himself,  who  had  come  home  to 
America  to  bear  the  part  of  a  soldier  throughout  our 
Civil  War  and  then  had  returned  to  his  missionary 
field,  was  there  at  Constantinople.  He  devoted  several 
days  to  our  entertainment  and  showed  us  the  walls  of 
the  city,  the  mosques,  the  old  churches,  including  Saint 
Sophia,  the  Constantine  Arch,  the  Hippodrome,  the 
Obelisk,  and  Pera.  We  passed  over  to  the  other  side 
of  the  Bosphorus  (to  Scutari)  where  Dr.  Cyrus  Ham¬ 
lin’s  great  work  had  been  done  in  furnishing  the  sol¬ 
diers  with  bread  during  the  Crimean  War,  and  there 
we  found  a  splendid  girls’  school  quite  equal  in  quality 
if  not  in  numbers  to  Robert  College.  Miss  Williams, 
the  principal  teacher,  married  a  missionary  while  we 
w^ere  there;  and  we  saw  the  departure  of  the  couple 
from  the  institution.  The  girls  were  all  in  tears  while 
they  threw  rice  after  the  departing  couple. 

I  think  that  my  most  instructive  visit  was  to  a 
large  room  of  the  harem  of  a  great  Turk  (Achmet 
Vefik,  Pasha).  He  had  at  one  time  been  the  governor 
of  a  large  province,  but  just  then  was  on  the  retired 
list  of  officials.  He  had  many  wives  but  we  were  not 
allowed  to  see  them.  He  spoke  several  languages  and 

511 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

conversed  with  ns  in  very  fair  English.  He  told  ns 
that  he  preferred  the  French  tongue.  He  was,  how¬ 
ever,  fond  of  English  books,  especially  of  Shakespeare. 
He  had  tea  brought  in  and  served  on  little  tables  and 
gave  ns  the  opportunity  to  sit  on  the  side  cushions,  or 
floor  mats,  and  smoke.  However,  he  had  several  chairs 
for  us  in  his  reception  room.  He  was  not  offended 
because  I  did  not  smoke.  The  Pasha  appeared  to  en¬ 
joy  his  visitors  as  much  as  we  did  the  interview. 

We  had  with  us  Professor  Grosvenor  of  Bobert 
College,  a  scholarly  man  who  was  a  great  favorite  of 
this  pasha. 


512 


CHAPTER  LXVI 


ITALY  AND  SWITZERLAND 

WEDNESDAY,  May  14th,  after  twelve  days  in 
Constantinople,  we  went  on  board  the  Italian 
steamer  Odonne  and  sailed  about  five  o’clock  in  the 
afternoon  for  Greece.  The  passage  via  the  Archipel¬ 
ago  was  so  interesting  that  we  remained  on  deck  till 
we  saw  the  lights  which  showed  the  way  into  the  little 
harbor  of  Piraeus.  After  a  sleep  of  three  hours,  near 
six  o’clock  in  the  morning,  we. landed  at  the  principal 
dock  of  the  city,  and  I  immediately  secured  a  carriage 
for  Athens.  The  road  was  comfortable,  being  macad¬ 
amized,  and  the  farms  were  good  to  look  at  though  not 
very  productive.  The  people  seemed  like  ours  of 
New  England,  active  and  industrious,  everybody  doing 
something.  As  we  came  to  Athens,  we  cried  out, 
“  Beautiful  ” ;  for  we  saw  the  new  part  of  the  city  first. 
The  modern  structures  of  white  marble  were  very  at¬ 
tractive.  The  new  part  had  clean  streets  and  side¬ 
walks  of  stone.  We  went  straight  to  the  Hotel  d’ Ath¬ 
ens,  and  after  refreshment  with  plenty  of  clear  water, 
and  a  nice  breakfast,  we  looked  up  our  good  Amer¬ 
ican  Minister,  Mr.  Schuyler.  He  was  a  handsome  and 
charming  young  man  and  glad  enough  to  welcome  his 
countrymen.  While  in  Greece  we  paid  a  visit  to  dif¬ 
ferent  churches,  the  Acropolis,  the  Parthenon,  the  old 
walls  of  the  city,  the  Temple  of  Theseus,  and  the  little 

513 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

chapel  on  the  top  of  a  steep  mound  called  the  Temple 
of  the  Winds,  and  all  other  places  that  tourists  must 
see.  A  special  privilege  came  to  us  on  Tuesday,  May 
20th,  in  attending  King  George’s  reception.  The  king 
was  goodlooking,  tall,  strongly  built,  about  forty 
years  of  age,  and  of  high  culture.  We  were  introduced 
by  our  minister  and  the  king  received  us  most  gra¬ 
ciously.  In  speaking  English  his  tone  and  manner 
were  those  of  England.  The  reception  itself  was  not 
crowded  and  seemed  very  like  those  given  by  our  col¬ 
lege  presidents  at  Commencement  seasons. 

Many  ancient  towns  were  pointed  out  to  us  while 
in  Greece,  and  especially  from  the  deck  of  our  depart¬ 
ing  steamer  the  few  remaining  tumble-down  buildings 
of  Corinth,  but  we  did  not  go  ashore  for  further  in¬ 
spection.  The  ruins  of  the  old  Corinthian  Acropolis 
were  in  sight. 

Friday  morning  at  Brindisi,  Italy,  we  disembarked 
from  the  steamer  Pelops  about  sunrise  and  went  at 
once  to  the  railroad  station.  The  country  round  about 
as  we  left  Brindisi  was  attractive  and  fertile.  The 
city  itself  had  wide  and  clean  streets,  but  notwithstand¬ 
ing  the  general  look  of  prosperity  there  was  a  large 
sprinkling  of  beggars  among  the  people.  We  sped  by 
rail  across  a  beautiful  land,  having  every  variety  of 
scenery  that  any  country  can  exhibit,  till  we  came  to 
the  charming  town  of  Caserta.  Our  hotel  here  was 
called  “  Ville  de  Florence  ” ;  in  that  summer  heat  we 
had  good  air  besides  a  broad  and  charming  outlook. 
I  noticed  that  there  were  artificial  stone  floors,  arched 
ceilings,  rooms  wainscoted  with  cement  and  colored 
like  green  marble.  As  we  had  planned,  we  rested  here 
over  Sunday. 

Quite  early  Sunday  morning  Jamie  and  I  saun- 

514 


Italy  and  Switzerland 

tered  out  and  walked  to  the  suburbs  where  we  found  a 
large  field  dotted  with  troops,  then  quietly  at  rest. 
Soon  the  reviewing  officer,  an  Italian  general,  ap¬ 
peared.  Immediately  the  men,  about  3,000,  were 
called  to  attention  and  marched  into  position  for  re¬ 
view.  All  exercises  were  bad  then  at  double-quick 
time.  The  men  were  hearty  looking — not  very  well 
“  set  up,”  still  the  soldiers  were  vigorous  and  active. 
Though  their  uniforms  were  somewhat  soiled,  and  dis¬ 
cipline  not  very  apparent,  still  we  said  to  each  other, 
“Not  so  bad!”  We  enjoyed  the  exercises  and  espe¬ 
cially  the  music. 

Most  of  the  day  was  spent  in  visiting  churches. 
By  four  o’clock  the  next  morning  we  climbed  up  the 
neighboring  mountain  to  the  old  monastery,  said  to  be 
the  only  one  of  any  size  then  presentable  in  all  Italy. 
There  were  about  180  students,  taught  by  German  and 
Italian  priests.  One  conducted  us  into  their  wonder¬ 
ful  chapel,  where  we  had  an  opportunity  to  see  and  par¬ 
ticipate  in  the  morning  worship.  We  enjoyed  the  old 
pictures  and  rich  carvings  and  took  much  interest  in 
looking  through  the  students’  rooms,  which  were  like 
small  cells  in  a  prison  and  had  scarcely  more  conven¬ 
iences.  One  of  the  priests,  seemingly  the  Superior, 
said  to  me  that  he  heard  that  the  American  minister, 
then  one  of  the  Astor  family  of  New  York,  had  visited 
the  grand  palace  at  Caserta.  He  hoped  that  he  would 
come  up  to  the  monastery  sometime,  as  he  desired  to 
see  him.  He  declared  with  animation  that  he  wanted 
to  set  eyes  on  a  man  that  was  worth  more  than  a  mil¬ 
lion  dollars  and  could  draw  his  check  for  any  amount 
he  liked. 

Our  morning  walk  and  climb  gave  us  good  appe¬ 
tites,  so  that  we  enjoyed  our  breakfast  when  we 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

reached  the  Pompeii  Hotel.  We  left  for  Borne  before 
eleven  o’clock  that  same  Monday  morning,  May  26th, 
and  were  in  the  great  city  by  two-thirty  in  the  after¬ 
noon.  We  looked  up  the  Alberti  Hotel,  where  we  took 
rooms  to  our  liking,  and  here  we  met  many  friends 
from  America  and  some  who  had  traveled  with  us,  such 
as  the  Chief  Justice  of  Greece,  Miss  Clark,  a  Massa¬ 
chusetts  teacher,  and  others.  We  spent  one  week  in 
Rome,  a  city  which  from  my  youth  I  had  longed  to  see, 
and  enjoyed  every  moment  of  that  week. 

One  day  we  visited  the  Pantheon,  the  Amphitheatre 
and  the  Roman  Forum — so  much  of  it  as  had  been 
recently  uncovered.  We  looked  upon  the  Obelisks 
upon  the  Arches  of  Triumph  and  the  innumerable 
monuments  which  have  kept  up  the  record  of  the  Em¬ 
perors  from  Romulus  to  the  Caesars.  Here  were  the 
Seven  Hills  in  plain  view,  and  then  the  places  which 
had  been  crowned  with  as  magnificent  palaces  as  the 
ancient  world  knew.  Another  day  we  were  in  St. 
Peter’s,  ascending  to  the  very  highest  point  we  could 
of  that  loftiest  of  structures ;  and  we  studied  for  a-while 
the  whole  surrounding  country.  We  were  invited  to 
see,  in  the  interior,  the  Pope’s  chapel  with  its  time- 
honored  pictures  and  its  wonderful  carvings.  We 
took  in  chapel  after  chapel  as  we  traversed  the  im¬ 
mense  spaces  below  and  saw  everything  that  anybody 
can  see  except  on  public  occasions.  We  came  away  im¬ 
pressed  with  the  thought  that  St.  Peter’s  of  Rome, 
about  which  we  had  read  all  our  lives,  had  not  disap¬ 
pointed  our  expectations.  That  great  cathedral  was 
broader,  longer,  higher,  more  complete,  and  more  mag¬ 
nificent  than  we  had  dreamed. 

Another  day  we  went  to  a  public  parade  in  the  new 
part  of  Rome  across  the  Tiber  and  on  the  way  drank 

516 


Italy  and  Switzerland 

at  the  beautiful  fountain.  We  had  the  privilege  of  sit¬ 
ting  with  an  American  lady,  the  wife  of  an  Italian 
count,  who  showed  that  she  was  happy  enough  to 
meet  us  Americans  and  speak  with  us  about  the  home 
land.  Just  then  the  King  and  Queen  were  reviewing 
several  well-equipped  regiments  of  the  line.  Sunday 
reviews  are  popular  in  Europe,  except  perhaps  with 
the  Sultan  of  Turkey,  who  is  wont  to  have  some  20,000 
soldiers  escort  him  to  his  mosque  worship  on  Friday. 
On  Sunday  morning  after  that  review  our  friends  took 
us  to  the  Rev.  Dr.  Nevins’s  Episcopal  church,  where  we 
had  a  helpful  service.  We  found  at  the  church  Mrs. 
John  Harris.  She  had  been  one  of  the  most  efficient 
missionary  workers  among  our  soldiers  during  the 
Civil  War.  I  had  seen  so  much  of  her  then  that  I  was 
glad  to  meet  the  noble  lady  again.  Her  Italian  home 
was  near  Florence.  She  seemed  well  and  contented, 
though  kept  abroad  by  order  of  her  physician,  who  for¬ 
bade  a  sea  voyage.  Perhaps  there  were  no  more  in¬ 
structive  lessons  than  those  mv  son  and  I  had  in  vis- 

* 

iting  the  studios  of  different  celebrated  artists.  Rome 
was  full  of  them,  and  studios  were  the  popular  resort 
of  sightseers. 

Hardly  any  young  man  goes  to  Rome  without  ex¬ 
periencing  some  kind  of  romantic  adventure.  I  had 
mine.  The  first  day  we  ventured  out  from  our  hotel  and 
crossed  the  Tiber  we  saw  an  active,  restless  multitude 
apparently  composed  of  people  from  every  civilized 
nation  of  the  world.  From  the  midst  of  what  appeared 
to  me  to  be  a  large  family  group,  a  little  girl  rushed 
out.  She  perhaps  was  ten  years  old.  She  came  with 
a  skip  and  a  jump  and  extended  one  hand  to  me;  in 
the  other  was  a  beautiful  bouquet,  tiny  but  variegated 
and  sweet.  She  was  tidily  dressed,  had  a  pretty  fig- 

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Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

ure  and  a  laughing  face.  She  tried  to  speak  English 
as  she  asked  me  to  buy  her  nosegay.  As  I  shook  my 
head,  not  having  any  change  to  give  her,  and  pleaded 
poverty,  she  took  me  by  the  hand  and  said  what  I  took 
to  be :  u  I  go  with  you.”  She  tripped  along  for  a  time 
by  my  side,  humming  some  snatch  of  a  tune  or  trying 
to  make  me  understand  her  talk.  At  last  she  smiled 
in  my  face,  put  her  flowers  into  my  side  pocket  and 
ran  away,  laughing  aloud.  Jamie  said,  “  Father,  you 
ought  not  to  have  encouraged  that  child,  she  will 
bother  you  to  death.”  But  I  liked  to  be  so  bothered! 
Every  day  when  we  came  she  would  quickly  discover 
us  and  come  up,  clapping  her  hands  and  dancing 
around.  I  was  away  from  home,  away  from  our 
own  little  children,  so  that  the  caressing  of  this 
beautiful  child  was  only  a  reminder  and  a  comfort. 
It  may  not  mean  much,  but  I  am  always  proud  of 
the  quick  approach  and  happy  recognition  of  a 
child. 

One  day  was  given  to  the  Catacombs.  It  was  of 
strange  interest  to  be  there  underground,  to  go  from 
tomb  to  tomb,  and  follow  out  the  long  gallery,  and  look 
into  the  dark  corners  and  singular  niches,  and  trace  the 
lineaments  of  those  who  had  been  long  ago  distin¬ 
guished  and  the  mottoes  which  were  preserved.  All 
this  was  noteworthy,  but  to  me  after  all  it  was  a  grew- 
some  place  and  I  was  glad  when  we  had  completed  our 
underground  wanderings  and  come  out  where  we  could 
breathe  fresh  air  again.  My  son,  who  had  become 
very  fond  of  ancient  bridges,  singular  pavings,  and 
road  constructions,  took  me  to  the  old  Appian  Way 
where  some  of  the  Christians  of  Rome,  few  indeed  in 
number,  came  out  to  meet  the  Apostle  Paul.  We  no¬ 
ticed  the  narrowness  of  the  way,  the  peculiarity  of  the 

518 


Italy  and  Switzerland 

pavement,  and  wondered  at  tlie  preservation  for  more 
than  eighteen  centuries  of  that  roadway. 

From  the  Vatican  to  the  tombs,  and  from  the  tombs 
to  the  prison  where  St.  Paul  was  confined,  to  this  old 
Appian  Way,  and  thence  to  the  modern  hotel,  to  the 
new  city  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Tiber,  and  to  the 
palace  of  the  King  in  sight  of  the  Seven  Hills  of  the 
ancient  city,  simply  jostled  us  from  the  old  to  the  new 
and  from  the  new  to  the  old  and  made  us  feel  that 
the  centuries  themselves  are  not  very  far  apart. 

The  special  attractions,  such  as  the  sculpture  and 
architecture  of  the  modern  churches,  then  the  friends 
met  from  home  and  the  evening  spent  in  the  Roman 
circus  together,  and  my  little  child  romance  are  now 
after  twenty  years  the  things  most  distinct  in  my 
recollection. 

It  was  a  bright  morning,  June  2,  1884,  when  we  left 
Rome  accompanied  by  Mrs.  Harris,  Dr.  McMorris,  and 
Miss  Kate  Field.  It  was  a  picturesque,  hilly  country 
all  the  way  from  Rome  to  Florence.  After  a  good 
night’s  rest  we  began  our  rambles  in  that  renowned 
city.  The  cathedral,  that  every  tourist  has  seen,  I 
found  remarkable,  not  so  much  for  its  size  as  for  its 
simplicity  and  beauty  of  form.  After  taking  in  the 
grand  structure  from  different  points  of  view  within 
and  without,  we  went  on  to  the  Piazza  Signoria.  What 
we  observed  here  were  the  ancient  monuments  and  the 
medallion  sculptures.  Passing  through  the  long  cor¬ 
ridor  to  the  Pitti  Gallery,  we  studied  the  statuary  and 
pictures  till  our  necks  ached.  At  the  Portia  Roma 
the  special  thing  to  see  was  the  statue  of  Dante; 
that  was  like  meeting  the  picture  of  a  well-known 
friend.  Later  we  visited  the  house  which  was  said  to 
be  his  home  when  in  Florence.  We  also  delighted  our 

519 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

eyes  with  the  home  of  Michael  Angelo.  Indeed,  there 
was  nothing  remarkable  about  it  except  the  feeling  we 
had  that  it  was  where  Michael  Angelo  had  lived. 

The  most  interesting  things  to  me  in  Florence  were 
those  in  line  of  record  about  Savonarola.  Our  visit 
extended  to  what  is  called  St.  Mark’s  Square,  and  par¬ 
ticularly  St.  Mark’s  Church  where  Savonarola  had 
preached.  We  went  into  the  monastery  which  the 
guide  told  us  contained  Savonarola’s  cell.  In  the  mon¬ 
astery  we  found  a  monument  that  had  been  erected  to 
his  memory.  It  is  still  doubtful  whether  this  magnifi¬ 
cent  preacher  of  the  truth  should  be  classed  with 
churchmen  or  statesmen;  perhaps  with  both. 

In  the  morning  of  Wednesday  June  4,  1884,  we 
crossed  the  Apennines,  enjoying  the  grand  scenery  all 
the  time  we  could  keep  outside  these  blinding  tunnels. 
My  eye  fell  here  and  there  upon  the  mountain  sides 
and  followed  the  terraces  up  to  the  very  top  of  the 
highest  hills.  I  had  not  thought  that  Italy  was  so 
thickly  settled,  but  as  we  sped  along  we  saw  villages, 
cities,  and  castles  everywhere. 

Padua  interested  me  on  account  of  its  antiquity  and 
its  military  character.  The  city  was  only  about  twenty 
miles  southwest  of  Venice  and  wonderfully  fortified. 
Its  principal  hall  is  covered  with  extraordinary  paint¬ 
ings  and  also  contains  the  monument  of  the  great 
writer  Livy.  I  had  read  Livy  when  a  freshman  in 
college.  The  University  of  Padua,  too,  has  always 
been  remarkable  for  its  students,  sometimes  having 
upward  of  2,000. 

Of  all  the  rivers  we  crossed  that  day  the  Po  was 
largest.  As  we  approached  nearer  to  Venice  my  son 
called  my  attention  to  the  “  Bubicon.”  Having  ar¬ 
rived  at  Venice,  we  had,  June  4tli,  our  first  ride  in  a 

520 


Italy  and  Switzerland 

gondola.  The  effect  produced  by  finding  canals  in¬ 
stead  of  streets,  and  gondolas  propelled  by  oarsmen 
rather  than  a  cab,  was  new  and  vivid.  After  enjoying 
our  starlight  rowing,  we  landed  at  an  excellent  hotel. 

Early  on  the  5th  we  set  out  for  St.  Mark’s  and, 
looking  diligently  through  the  cathedral  near  by,  re¬ 
garded  with  interest  the  peculiar  tower.  It  was  not 
long  before  we  were  standing  on  the  upper  platform 
at  its  very  top.  Here  we  had,  that  morning,  a  clear 
view  of  the  extensive  city  and  its  surroundings.  Some 
young  Jews  called  our  attention  to  the  clock  on  the 
tower  and  we  beheld  the  bronze  men  striking  the  bell. 
Quite  a  multitude  were  with  us  while  we  were  on  the 
broad  piazza  and  beholding  the  happy,  active  pigeons 
beautiful  and  so  tame  that  they  would  light  on  your 
shoulders  and  feed  from  your  hand.  We  next  went 
to  the  Museo  (an  academy).  The  pictures  and  old 
sculptures  in  alto  relievo  absorbed  our  attention  for  a 
time — we  brought  away  a  well-marked  catalogue. 
Then  came  a  welcome  rest  while  we  lunched.  After 
that  we  passed  on  to  the  Doge’s  Palace,  took  a  look 
at  the  historic  rooms,  the  Senate  House,  and  the  Li¬ 
brary,  all  decorated  with  abundant  paintings.  When 
we  came  into  the  street  we  turned  and  viewed,  on  the 
outside,  the  Doge’s  prison,  and  talked  about  the  bridge 
which  passes  from  the  palace  to  the  prison,  named  the 
“  Bridge  of  Sighs,”  and  could  almost  realize  the  ach¬ 
ing  of  the  human  hearts  that  passed  from  the  palace 
to  the  prison  never  to  return. 

Venice  had  everywhere  the  appearance  of  decay, 
though  still  very  beautiful  and  attractive.  What  you 
see,  however,  leaves  a  feeling  of  sadness  as  if  for  some¬ 
thing  passing  away.  You  ask  yourself,  How  can  125,- 
000  people  continue  to  live  there!  There  is  little  evi- 

521 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

dence  of  enterprise  or  progress.  About  ten  o’clock 
in  the  evening  of  this  day  we  again  went  on  board  a 
large  gondola  and  with  some  German  students  as 
companions  made  our  way  to  the  train  which  left  the 
city  that  night. 

We  were  in  Milan  the  morning  of  June  6th,  where 
the  weather  was  mild  and  the  skies  clear.  From  the 
top  of  the  cathedral,  ethereal  in  its  surpassing  beauty, 
we  had  a  magnificent  view,  which  took  in  an  immense 
portion  of  Italy.  The  city  is  circular  and  still  encom¬ 
passed  on  three  sides  by  walls.  The  entire  circuit  is 
about  eight  miles.  It  can  be  entered  from  its  different 
quarters  by  ten  gates.  It  has  sidewalks  thoroughly 
paved.  The  Brera  Palace,  which  was  formerly  a 
Jesuit  College,  was,  when  we  were  there,  a  great  pub¬ 
lic  school  of  art  with  a  library  of  140,000  books. 

At  Turin  we  visited  an  Exposition,  which  was  in 
active  operation  just  outside  the  city  limits,  and  saw 
the  multitude — various  peoples  and  climes  were  repre¬ 
sented.  From  Saturday  to  Sunday  we  slept  twelve  hours 
and  then  attended  an  English  church  service  at  eleven 
o’clock.  We  walked  about  the  city  considerably  Sun¬ 
day  afternoon,  but  it  was  on  Monday,  June  9th,  that 
we  accomplished  the  most.  My  son  was  especially  in¬ 
terested  in  the  mechanical  department.  We  exam¬ 
ined  also  the  war  and  art  divisions  of  the  Exposition. 
On  this  same  day  we  went  from  Turin  to  Bellinzona, 
an  Italian  town  of  some  importance,  really  in  Swit¬ 
zerland,  situated  on  the  left  bank  of  the  Tecino.  It 
used  to  be  guarded  by  three  old  castles  and  completely 
commanded  the  road  through  the  valley  where  it  is 
located.  We  arrived  at  midnight  and  the  hotels  were 
closed  and  so  we  decided  to  stay  in  the  depot,  but  the 
railroad  agent  said  that  he  must  close  up  that  build- 

522 


Italy  and  Switzerland 

ing  and  that  we  could  not  be  allowed  to  remain  in  it, 
so  we  walked  about  the  city  for  a  while  and  when  we 
were  weary,  without  asking  permission  crept  into  some 
cars  that  were  waiting  at  the  station,  and  slept  there 
until  the  morning  of  June  10th.  The  train  left  very 
early  for  the  mountains.  En  route  before  5  a.m.  we 
caught  glimpses  of  old  towers  and  castles  here  and 
there.  The  land  was  rough  and  rocky,  but  the  scenery 
was  grand.  The  sides  of  some  of  the  mountains  were 
terraced  high  up  and  under  cultivation. 

Nothing  took  our  attention  more  than  the  St.  Gotli- 
ard’s  Tunnel.  The  longest  reach  in  that  tunnel  with¬ 
out  opening  except  for  ventilation  was  ten  miles. 
Having  the  opportunity  to  look  up,  we  could  see  above 
us  a  loop  of  the  road  we  were  ascending.  The  sound 
of  our  cars  at  times  resembled  the  Cascades  of  the 
Columbia. 

In  Lucerne,  Switzerland,  by  1  p.m.  of  the  same  day, 
where  we  spent  but  a  few  hours,  the  country  is  rug¬ 
ged  as  always  in  Switzerland,  and  the  ravines  and 
valleys  so  narrow  that  it  is  a  comfort  to  look  out  upon 
Lake  Lucerne.  We  had  a  glimpse  of  the  old  tower 
that  was  once  the  lighthouse  from  which  the  city  and 
the  canton  took  their  names.  Lucerne  also  has  an 
arsenal  of  importance  ready  for  any  sudden  need. 
The  famous  Lion,  a  monument  to  the  Swiss  guard  that 
was  so  faithful  in  its  defense  of  Louis  XVI  of  France, 
reminded  us  of  the  pictures  and  history  of  that  heroic 
event. 

The  next  morning  by  6.30  we  arrived  in  Paris 
and  went  at  once  to  our  hotel.  That  day  we  took  a 
trip  to  Versailles  with  some  American  friends  and  ex¬ 
amined  the  fine  furniture  of  the  palace.  The  grounds 
around  the  palatial  building  our  party  pronounced 

523 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

superb.  We  were  happy  that  evening  after  our  return 
to  Paris  to  spend  an  hour  with  other  intimate  friends 
from  the  United  States.  To  see  them  was  like  a 
breath  of  air  from  home. 

At  our  hotel  not  far  from  the  Opera,  there  was  a 
group  of  Theo sophists  together  with  the  famous  Ma¬ 
dame  Blavatsky,  who  was  at  that  time  their  inspira¬ 
tion  and  leader.  Some  newspaper  people  in  Amer¬ 
ica  had  sent  to  Paris  Mrs.  Laura  C.  Holloway,  a  writer 
who  had  previous  to  this  time  written  a  sketch  of  my 
life.  Mrs.  Holloway  had  been  sent  to  make  a  study 
of  this  society,  which  claimed  at  that  time  to  be 
investigating  Buddhism  and  other  religions  of  the 
Orient.  She  was  to  examine  the  pros  and  cons  con¬ 
cerning  them  and  make  a  report  to  the  friends  who 
sent  her.  I  was  glad  to  become  acquainted  with  Ma¬ 
dame  Blavatsky,  a  Russian  countess,  who  could  speak 
eight  languages  with  fluency.  She  spoke  English  like 
an  Englishwoman.  She  smoked  her  pipe  like  a  man 
of  the  world  and  was  habitually  rough  in  her  manners 
and  untidy  in  her  dress,  but  exceptionally  intelligent 
and  entertaining.  At  that  time  I  was  simply  intro¬ 
duced.  Later  during  my  European  visit  I  came  across 
the  party  again  in  Germany. 


524 


CHAPTER  LXVII 


FRANCE  AND  GERMANY;  CONVENTION  OF  YOUNG  MEN'S 
CHRISTIAN  ASSOCIATION,  BERLIN,  1884 

ON  our  return  to  Paris  June  11th,  we  turned  to 
the  Hotel  Brisil,  Rue  Helder.  The  rooms  were 
small  and  we  were  obliged  to  climb  three  flights  of 
stairs,  but  the  hotel  was  neat  enough  excepting  the 
bathrooms,  which  were  poorly  supplied  with  the  main 
essential,  water.  In  those  days  we  furnished  our  own 
candles  and  all  other  small  needs  and  conveniences 
and  there  were  not  any  “  lifts.”  None  then  existed  in 
Paris  except  in  the  largest  public  houses. 

On  Sunday,  June  15th,  we  all  went  quite  early  to 
the  Madeleine.  Perhaps  no  music  could  be  more  ef¬ 
fective  than  that  filling  the  great  spaces,  caught  as  one 
entered  and  stood  near  the  doorway.  There  was  an 
annual  church  festival  in  progress  and  the  auditorium 
was  filled  to  overflowing.  It  was  from  the  front  of 
this  building  that  Bonaparte  in  the  very  beginning 
of  his  career  made  his  artillery  so  effective  against 
the  National  Guard.  On  this  day  Jamie  gave  us  a 
treat  in  what  is  called  a  “  Duval.”  It  was  a  peculiarly 
constructed  restaurant,  very  economical  in  its  furnish¬ 
ing  and  in  its  bill  of  fare.  To  our  astonishment,  we 
met  a  number  of  American  friends  who  were  seated 
at  a  neighboring  table.  They  recognized  us  as  we 
came  in ;  thus  happily  and  cheerfully  friends  meet  un¬ 
expectedly  in  all  parts  of  the  world. 

525 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

That  evening  we  attended  Dr.  Beren’s  church  (an 
Evangelical),  and  listened  to  a  sermon  in  French  of 
which  I  was  not  able  to  gather  much  because  the 
clergyman  spoke  too  rapidly  for  my  American  ears. 

On  June  17th  we  had  a  charming  walk  through  the 
Bois  de  Boulogne.  The  groves,  bright  green  and 
fresh  in  June,  have  been  well  preserved  and  the  paths 
are  as  well  kept  as  those  in  our  New  York  Central 
Park.  There  is  no  better  success  anywhere  in  cul¬ 
tivating  trees,  shrubs,  and  flowers  something  akin 
to  nature.  We  passed  from  this  delightful  park  into 
cross  streets,  emerging  at  last  into  a  broad  boulevard 
which  led  us  to  Napoleon’s  “  Arc  de  Triomphe.” 
When  we  had  sufficiently  fatigued  ourselves  with  walk¬ 
ing  and  studying  heroic  figures  and  historic  inscrip¬ 
tions,  we  took  a  carriage  and  returned  to  our  hotel. 

One  establishment  that  I  frequently  and  hopefully 
visited  was  the  American  Exchange,  at  that  time  kept 
by  Drexel,  Harjes  &  Co.  There  I  always  met  friends 
from  America  and  gathered  from  New  York  papers 
items  of  news  not  procurable  elsewhere.  We  natu¬ 
rally  looked  for  letters  and  went  away  greatly  dis¬ 
appointed  when  we  found  none  from  home.  My  wife, 
however,  was  very  faithful  to  write  something  and 
send  her  letters  with  choice  newspaper  clippings  by 
every  mail. 

My  son  went  to  the  depot  with  me  on  June  21st, 
and  as  I  was  to  go  to  Evreux,  France,  without  him, 
he  gave  me  pretty  thorough  instructions.  The  jour¬ 
ney  took  three  hours,  and  M.  Chauvet,  our  friend,  very 
kindly  met  me  at  the  railroad  station  of  his  small  city, 
and  took  me  to  his  home.  There  I  remained  for  six 
weeks.  His  family  then  consisted  of  himself,  wife, 
and  three  daughters.  The  eldest  was  near  sixteen. 

526 


France  and  Germany 

My  object  in  tarrying  with  these  good  people  so  long 
was  to  learn  more  French.  M.  Chanvet  was  a  clergy¬ 
man  of  the  Protestant  faith,  called  the  Evangelical, 
paid,  however,  by  the  Government  a  regular  salary, 
as  church  and  state  were  not  yet  separate.  From 
him  I  took  daily  lessons.  The  family  received  stu¬ 
dents  from  England  and  America.  The  daughters 
could  speak  a  little  English,  but  the  father  and  mother 
spoke  French  only.  My  son,  Jamie,  had  been  with 
.them  some  years  before.  During  my  stay  I  was  in¬ 
troduced  to  several  officers  of  a  regiment  of  dragoons 
and  became  a  friend  of  the  major,  whose  office  corre¬ 
sponds  to  that  of  our  regimental  quartermaster  and 
commissary,  only  he  habitually  lived  with  his  family 
separate  from  the  regiment.  Several  times  a  week  the 
commanding  officer  sent  me  a  saddle  horse  accompanied 
by  a  mounted  orderly,  so  that  I  had  the  coveted  oppor¬ 
tunity  of  attending  reviews  and  parades,  and  was 
treated  with  all  the  courtesy,  official  and  unofficial,  that 
one  could  desire.  On  Sundays  I  attended  M.  Chauvet’s 
church.  While  at  his  house  Mrs.  Leech,  the  wife  of 
my  West  Point  classmate,  Colonel  Leech,  came  with 
her  two  children  and  niece  to  spend  some  weeks. 
Miss  Greble,  the  niece,  my  godchild,  always  talked 
English  to  me  and  so  interrupted  my  French,  to  her 
amusement  and  mine. 

A  short  distance  from  M.  Chauvet’s  was  an  exten¬ 
sive  forest.  The  trees  were  not  very  near  together 
and  there  was  no  underbrush.  During  a  holiday  all 
the  family,  including  the  pupils  from  abroad,  would  at 
times  go  through  the  forest,  hunting  for  champignons. 
We  wandered  about  at  will  and  enjoyed  every  experi¬ 
ence  that  an  extensive  woodland  filled  with  roads  and 
crossroads  without  fences  could  give  us.  In  the  heart 

527 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

of  the  forest  we  would  unexpectedly  run  upon  little 
homes  and  hamlets.  We  enjoyed  particularly  the  va¬ 
riety  of  birds,  and  here  drank  in  with  relish  the  fresh 
air  during  the  hot  summer  days.  Having  filled  our 
baskets  with  the  right  kind  of  mushrooms,  we  made  our 
way  back. 

One  Sunday  afternoon  after  the  quiet  morning 
service  I  was  taken  to  what  one  might  call  the  village 
green ;  for  Evreux,  though  a  city  of  small  size,  is  made 
up  of  villages  in  communes.  To  the  village  green,  I 
speak  of,  light-hearted  people  came  in  families,  and  I 
saw  about  the  liveliest  dance  ever  seen.  A  strong 
young  man  full  of  fun  and  ardor  would  seize  a  maiden, 
lift  her  up,  and  swing  her  round,  making  some  joyous 
exclamation  which  she  usually  met  by  short  screams 
and  vigorous  attempts  to  free  herself  from  his  em¬ 
brace.  The  young  people  were  very  happy  and  grace¬ 
ful,  as  the  French  always  are,  however  irregular  and 
wild  their  performances.  The  parents  and  children, 
laughing  and  clapping  their  hands,  looked  on  with  de¬ 
light.  Even  our  Protestant  friends  did  not  think  this 
fun  and  exercise  inappropriate  to  the  French  Sabbath. 

I  had  been  some  time  in  Evreux  before  I  discovered 
the  peculiarity  of  the  people’s  reception  of  strangers. 
Again  and  again  I  had  talked  with  a  Jewish  friend, 
M.  Goldsmith,  and  he  appeared  to  enjoy  my  society, 
and  I  wondered  why  he  did  not  call  and  see  me. 
At  last,  on  inquiry  as  to  the  reason,  my  preceptor  told 
me  that  it  was  my  duty,  being  the  newcomer,  to  visit 
him  first.  Then  I  did  so  and  he  soon  returned  mv 
call.  Subsequently  his  house  was  open  to  me,  and  I 
always  received  from  him  a  cordial  welcome. 

One  day  I  had  occasion  to  go  to  a  shoe  shop,  and 
finding  the  shoemaker  himself  disposed  to  chat  with 

528 


France  and  Germany 

me  in  French  while  he  continued  his  work,  became  in¬ 
terested  in  him.  He  and  his  wife  were  sending  to 
school  in  Evreux  their  only  son,  a  lad  of  twelve.  They 
were  very  fond  of  him  and  hopeful  that  he  would  make 
a  scholar,  and  by  and  by  learn  a  profession  or  trade 
more  remunerative  than  shoemaking.  Several  times 
I  visited  the  worthy  couple  and  they  repeatedly  in¬ 
quired  concerning  the  chances  of  earning  a  living  in 
North  America.  I  was  careful  in  my  answers  not  to 
increase  their  discontent.  One  day  I  asked  this  work¬ 
man  if  he  did  not  have  holidays.  Shaking  his  head 
he  said,  “  I  have  none  except  Christmas.”  “  Why,” 
I  remarked,  “  you  do  not  work  on  Sundays!”  “Oh, 
yes,  I  do.  I  am  obliged  to  work  hard  seven  days  in  the 
week  to  get  enough  together  to  give  us  a  decent  living.” 
Poor  people!  Like  so  many  other  European  workers, 
L’Amerique  du  Nord  was  their  constant  hope. 

During  one  pleasant  Sunday  I  accompanied  M. 
Chauvet  and  part  of  his  family  to  a  distant  village 
named  St.  Opportune.  Here  we  attended  the  anni¬ 
versary  exercises  of  one  of  the  numerous  Evangeli¬ 
cal  schools.  A  large  congregation,  made  up  princi¬ 
pally  of  the  fathers  and  mothers  of  the  children,  was 
present.  As  a  rule  they  were  dressed  in  clean  blue 
workday  frocks,  such  as  the  peasantry  in  France  us¬ 
ually  wear.  The  exercises  were  similar  to  what  we 
have  on  anniversary  occasions  in  our  village  schools, 
consisting  of  literary  exercises,  examinations,  and 
singing.  There  were  two  sessions  in  this  public  exhi¬ 
bition.  During  intermission,  while  we  were  at  lunch, 
M.  Chauvet  asked  me  to  make  an  address  to  the 
school  and  assembled  people  that  afternoon.  I  told 
him  that  I  hardly  dared  trust  myself  in  French.  He 
smiled  and  said  that  I  could  try.  So,  mustering  cour- 

529 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

age,  I  took  a  memorandum  book  from  my  pocket  and 
wrote  down  a  brief  address  in  which  I  called  the  atten¬ 
tion  of  the  people  to  the  sympathy  between  our  two 
republics.  I  told  them  how  the  name  of  Lafayette  was 
regarded  in  our  country  and  pointed  out  some  things 
which  Lafayette  had  so  generously  done  for  us  dur¬ 
ing  our  Revolutionary  War;  and  spoke  of  the  mutual 
attachment  and  friendship  that  had  always  existed  be¬ 
tween  him  and  Washington.  I  submitted  my  proposed 
address  to  M.  Chauvet.  He  ran  it  over  and  made  a  few 
corrections  and  returned  the  manuscript  to  me  with 
the  comment,  “  C’est  bon  ”  I  read  my  composition  as 
well  as  I  could  to  the  audience,  and  was  surprised  at 
the  evident  sympathy  and  marked  applause  which 
punctuated  my  queer  delivery.  This  was  my  first 
and  last  attempt  to  give  a  public  address  in  French. 

It  was  Friday,  August  8th,  when  I  left  Evreux  for 
Paris.  Mr.  Beddhoes,  my  English  fellow-student, 
very  kindly  accompanied  me  to  the  station,  conveying 
my  luggage  upon  a  wheelbarrow.  Clara  Greble  and 
Susie  Leech  also  came  with  M.  Chauvet  to  see  me  off. 

I  arrived  in  Paris  without  accident  and  hastened 
to  the  American  Exchange  to  secure  as  soon  as  pos¬ 
sible  news  from  home.  After  dining  with  a  few 
friends,  I  set  out  from  Paris  for  Cologne  the  same 
evening.  While  en  route  I  formed  the  acquaintance 
of  a  Captain  Buscho,  a  very  companionable  regular 
officer  in  the  Swiss  army.  Tie  could  speak  English, 
French,  or  German,  and  so  did  me  much  needed  serv¬ 
ice  as  an  interpreter. 

By  six  o’clock  the  next  morning  we  had  crossed  the 
Rhine.  Having  been  in  Cologne  before,  I  only  stopped 
for  a  brief  period  between  the  trains.  I  had,  however, 
some  new  and  beautiful  views  up  and  down  the  Rhine 

530 


France  and  Germany 

and  took  another  coveted  glimpse  at  the  outside  of  the 
Grand  Cathedral.  The  train  moved  on  and  I  reached 
the  city  of  Hanover  by  the  middle  of  the  afternoon. 
The  day  was  delightful.  Hanover  was  neat  and 
seemed  finished  above  any  city  I  had  seen.  It  was 
very  complete  and  attractive,  even  at  the  railway  sta¬ 
tion;  but  I  was  troubled,  in  spite  of  the  instructions 
which  my  son  had  given  me,  namely,  “  Speak  English 
slowly  and  you  will  be  understood.”  I  did  so,  but 
everyone  shook  his  head,  saying,  “  Verstelie  niclit  .” 
The  Swiss  captain  had  left  me  at  a  previous  junction 
so  that  I  was  indeed  feeling  like  a  stranger  in  a  strange 
land.  I  asked  that  my  luggage  be  transferred  from 
one  station  to  another  so  as  to  take  the  train  for  Got¬ 
tingen.  At  last  I  came  across  an  official  who  under¬ 
stood  my  French,  so  my  purpose  was  accomplished. 
After  a  little  amusing  experience  at  the  main  station 
at  Gottingen,  where  I  was  making  an  effort  to  find  my 
way  to  Bodemeyer  Cottage,  I  met  Mr.  Arthur  Law¬ 
rence,  of  Boston,  whom  I  knew.  He  interpreted  for  me 
and  conducted  me  to  the  home  of  my  friends. 

The  order  and  completeness  of  everything  in  this 
university  town  strike  the  stranger  at  once.  The 
little  home  of  the  family  (von  Bodemeyer’s)  was  no 
exception.  The  family  consisted  of  an  aged  mother, 
Frau  Morestadt,  her  widowed  daughter  Frau  von 
Bodemeyer,  and  the  three  grandchildren,  young  ladies. 
There  was  a  brother  who  was  then  away  at  Dresden. 
The  grossmutter  was  the  widow  of  a  clergyman,  who 
had  died  while  working  as  a  missionary  abroad.  In 
this  sweet  home  was  a  household  of  five  good  women. 
They  took  into  their  family  students  from  England 
and  America,  and  instructed  them  in  the  German  lan¬ 
guage.  Those  who  came  into  the  family  were  fortu- 

531 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

nate,  for  they  were  taught  the  very  best  German,  and 
their  student  life  was  made  happy.  When  I  arrived 
my  son  was  absent  with  two  of  the  young  ladies,  Adel- 
lieid  and  Hedwig.  They  had  gone  on  an  excursion 
into  the  country.  The  youngest,  Gertrude,  who  spoke 
English  with  some  difficulty,  welcomed  me  pleasantly 
and  introduced  me  to  her  mother  and  grandmother, 
and  was  my  interpreter  until  the  return  of  the  excur¬ 
sionists.  I  once  read  “  Undine  ”  and  was  greatly  in¬ 
terested  in  the  character  of  an  aged  grandmother,  who 
had  the  homage  of  all  the  family  and  occupied  the  chair 
of  honor.  The  grossmutter  at  Gottingen  had  the  hom¬ 
age  and  almost  the  worship  of  this  family,  and  she  too 
occupied  the  chair  of  honor,  which  was  a  little  elevated 
and  apart.  My  conversation  with  her,  even  by  inter¬ 
pretation,  was  delightful.  I  found  her  remarkably  in¬ 
telligent  and  well  versed  in  history,  especially  in  the 
accounts  of  Napoleon’s  battles  which  took  place  on 
German  soil  and  at  a  period  that  she  well  remem¬ 
bered.  Her  strong  sympathy  seemed  to  be  with  Bona¬ 
parte,  perhaps  because  Hanover  had  been  absorbed  by 
Prussia. 

After  the  return  of  my  son  and  the  young  ladies 
I  became  better  acquainted  with  the  family.  Adelheid 
and  Hedwig  spoke  English  perfectly,  and  very  soon 
this  home  in  Gottingen  became  to  me  a  home  indeed. 
Jamie  was  a  little  ashamed  of  his  father,  I  think,  at 
that  time,  because  of  his  having  a  swollen  face,  and 
nose  much  too  large.  He  soon,  however,  took  me  to 
a  skillful  German  doctor  who  could  speak  English. 
My  son  explained  to  him  with  some  care  that  his  fa¬ 
ther  had  not  been  in  any  convivial  company  or  place. 
The  doctor  hushed  him  instantly  and  said  in  plain  Eng¬ 
lish,  “  Oh,  no,  no,  this  could  come  from  dust  in  a  rail- 

532 


France  and  Germany 

way  coach.”  Then  with  a  keen  lancet  he  removed  the 
germ  which  caused  the  swelling  and  put  it,  after  show¬ 
ing  it  to  ns,  in  a  vial  for  preservation.  In  three  days 
my  face  had  recovered  its  healthy  tone  and  wonted 
shape. 

It  was  delightful  to  my  son  and  myself  to  visit  dif¬ 
ferent  parts  of  the  University  of  Gottingen  together. 
He  had  enjoyed  the  benefits  of  this  institution  for 
nearly  two  years.  On  the  Sunday  I  was  in  this  educa¬ 
tional  center  I  accompanied  the  young  people  to  a 
large  church.  The  altar  was  decorated,  probably  for 
some  festival.  I  was  surprised  to  see  in  this  Luther¬ 
an  church  a  large-sized  image  of  the  Virgin  and  the 
Child  in  one  corner.  A  noticeable  crucifix  was  near 
the  high  pulpit.  The  service  was  long  and  so  was  the 
sermon.  I  knew  too  few  German  words  to  follow  the 
discourse,  though  the  clergyman  spoke  with  delibera¬ 
tion  and  clearness.  The  singing  was  excellent.  The 
Sabbath  in  Gottingen  was  kept  very  much  as  it  is  in 
a  university  village  in  the  United  States,  except  that 
there  was  a  band  concert  held  in  the  afternoon  in  an 
inclosure  near  an  extensive  hall  with  ample  grounds. 
It  was  a  beautiful  day  in  August,  so  that  the  seats  and 
music  were  all  out  of  doors.  I  do  not  think  that  I 
have  ever  heard  music  more  restful  and  satisfying. 
This  appeared  to  my  New  England  mind  to  be  more 
appropriate  to  the  Sabbath  than  the  dancing  and  hilar¬ 
ity  that  I  witnessed  on  a  Sunday  in  Evreux. 

The  day  before  my  departure  for  Berlin  I  went 
with  my  son  to  an  evening  entertainment.  It  was  a 
club  meeting  where  nearly  all  the  members  were  bi¬ 
cycle  devotees.  I  was  asked  to  give  a  brief  address 
to  the  young  gentlemen.  I  did  so  and  Jamie  was  my 
interpreter.  His  translation  brought  abundant  and 

533 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

somewhat  noisy  applause.  I  had  never  seen  such 
large  mugs  as  those  from  which  the  members  of  this 
club  drank  their  beer.  The  young  men  were  merry 
and  lively  enough,  but  I  saw  no  signs  of  intoxication 
even  after  several  returns  to  the  mug.  We  were 
helped  to  lemonade,  which  we,  with  our  American 
taste,  preferred  to  beer. 

As  I  had  been  called  by  our  International  Young 
Men’s  Christian  Association  to  a  conference  in  Berlin, 
I  invited  my  son,  Hedwig,  and  Gertrude  to  go  with  me, 
and  we  set  out  August  19tli,  and,  arriving  on  the  even¬ 
ing  of  the  20th,  stopped  at  the  Thiergarten  Hotel. 
I  had  been  invited  to  the  residence  of  General  Zeitung, 
a  regular  officer  of  the  German  army.  He  kept  bach¬ 
elor  quarters,  hut  at  this  time  was  absent  from  the 
city.  He  had  left  his  servants  in  the  house  with  a 
royal  welcome  for  me.  I  dined  with  Count  Bernsdorff 
and  his  wife.  There  I  met  many  Y.  M.  C.  A.  delegates, 
some  of  whom  I  knew.  The  count,  who  was  on  the 
staff  of  the  old  Emperor  Wilhelm,  was  of  remarkable 
size.  His  height  was  at  least  six  feet  four  inches, 
and  his  handsome  wife  was  almost  as  tall  as  he.  They 
had  fine  figures,  and  in  their  recej)tion  of  guests 
and  at  the  table  presented  a  notable  appearance.  I 
can  never  forget  the  sensation  that  came  over  me  when 
I  was  presented  to  this  lady.  When,  a  little  later  af¬ 
ter  dinner,  I  had  a  chance  of  conversing  with  her, 
she  was  seated  and  I  was  standing;  she  liked  this 
manner  of  entertainment  better  and  so  did  I.  This 
couple  could  speak  English  perfectly.  The  count 
printed  his  welcoming  address  in  four  languages, 
German,  English,  French,  and  Italian.  He  deliv¬ 
ered  it  first  in  German  and  then  repeated  it  in 
English. 


534 


France  and  Germany 

There  were  two  occurrences  at  this  Young  Men’s 
conference  which  have  remained  especially  bright  and 
clear  in  my  recollection.  One  was  meeting  with  Fried¬ 
rich  Blumenbach.  He  had  been  an  officer  during  the 
Civil  War  in  the  quartermaster’s  department  in  my 
Eleventh  Corps.  At  that  time  he  was  a  skeptic  and 
inclined  to  laugh  at  those  who  professed  to  be  Chris¬ 
tians.  Indeed,  it  was  a  difficult  thing  to  be  a  consist¬ 
ent  Christian  in  an  active  war.  Blumenbach  had  criti¬ 
cised  me  particularly  at  that  time.  After  the  war, 
through  the  influence  of  one  of  our  Christian  officers 
and  his  wife  he  was  converted  and  became  as  pro¬ 
nounced  a  Christian  as  he  had  been  an  opponent.  He 
became  remarkable  for  establishing  Young  Men’s 
Christian  Associations,  carrying  his  work  into  the  far 
South,  even  through  the  State  of  Texas.  He  and  I 
met  at  this  Berlin  conference  and  I  found  him  actively 
engaged  in  Germany,  as  he  had  been  in  Texas,  speaking 
and  writing  and  organizing  associations.  He  was 
evidently  glad  to  meet  me  and  translated  a  brief  ad¬ 
dress  for  me  at  the  conference. 

The  other  occurrence  was  my  visit  to  Potsdam, 
where  I  went  with  members  of  the  conference.  Here 
we  had  the  opportunity  to  look  at  the  best-drilled 
troops  that  I  had  ever  seen.  We  went  through  the 
rooms  of  Frederick  the  Great,  which  had  remained 
substantially  the  same  as  they  had  been  during  his  life. 
After  our  inspection  of  everything  that  was  interest¬ 
ing,  we  attended  a  banquet  there  given  us  by  our  Ger¬ 
man  friends.  I  had  been  asked  to  speak  for  the  Em¬ 
peror,  who  had  written  us  a  pleasant  letter  and  asked 
to  be  considered  a  “  young  old  man  ”  and  to  be  made 
at  least  a  nominal  member  of  the  association.  I  was 
willing  to  perform  this  function  but  I  could  not  speak 

535 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

in  German.  So  I  said  that  if  my  friend  Blumenbacli 
would  translate  for  me,  I  would  take  that  part  and  re¬ 
spond  to  the  toast  of  the  Emperor.  Blumenbach  trans¬ 
lated  a  few  sentences  at  a  time  as  I  spoke.  When  I  had 
finished,  he  told  the  story  of  his  conversion  and  said 
that  he  had  laughed  at  me  when  he  was  in  the  army, 
but  now  he  wished  to  testify  publicly  that  I  had  been 
right  and  he  wrong  at  that  time.  After  the  adjourn¬ 
ment  of  the  association  and  a  profitable  visit  to  the 
fields  of  the  German  military  maneuvers,  I  took  the 
cars  with  my  friends  for  Gottingen  and  Elberfeld;  I 
soon  arrived  at  the  latter  city. 

Here  I  again  met  Mrs.  Holloway  and  the  Blavat- 
sky  company.  They  had  several  people  of  their  way 
of  thinking  with  them,  and  Mohini,  who  had  come  from 
India.  Mrs.  Holloway  and  her  friends  were  staying 
at  Mr.  Gebhart’s,  a  worthy  man  and  a  large  silk  manu¬ 
facturer.  Sorrow  came  to  him  and  his  family  in  the 
loss  of  one  of  his  sons.  The  young  man  was  away 
from  home,  and,  getting  into  some  difficulty,  wrote  to 
his  father  for  money.  His  father,  thinking  him  ex¬ 
travagant,  sent  him  a  letter  complaining  of  his  con¬ 
duct.  The  young  man,  driven  to  desperation,  in  some 
way  made  a  draft  upon  his  father,  and  his  father  in 
order  to  frighten  him  had  suit  brought  against  him. 
The  son  declared  that  in  case  of  arrest  he  would  take 
his  life.  His  parents  did  not  really  believe  that  he  meant 
to  do  so,  but  as  soon  as  the  magistrate  put  him  under 
arrest  he  committed  suicide.  The  Gebharts  were  Lu¬ 
therans  and  had  held  to  the  orthodox  faith,  but  not 
long  after  this  they  withdrew  from  the  church  and 
united  with  the  Theosophists.  They  were  trying  to 
substitute  the  Buddhist  belief  for  the  orthodox  creed 
— so  said  their  friends.  The  Buddhist  idea  of  rein- 

536 


France  and  Germany 

carnation  would  promise  them  a  reunion  somewhere 
in  the  long  future  with  their  son. 

I  saw  that,  in  spite  of  Madame  Blavatsky’s  great 
learning  and  her  claims  of  power  to  work  miracles, 
she  herself  was  not  satisfied ;  she  was  not  con¬ 
tented,  and  I  endeavored  to  show  her  how  to  become 
so.  I  was  never  able  to  determine  whether  or  not  she 
was  sincere  in  her  claims.  She  certainly  had  some  ex¬ 
traordinary  powers.  I  came  to  the  conclusion,  how¬ 
ever,  that  the  simple,  straightforward,  plain  teaching 
of  the  Great  Master  was  better  than  the  mysteries 
clustering  about  this  woman  and  her  followers. 

During  this  stay  at  Elberfeld  I  made  several  vis¬ 
its  to  neighboring  towns.  At  Diisseldorf  I  enjoyed 
the  libraries  and  the  picture  galleries,  which  are  fa¬ 
mous.  While  there  with  my  friend  Mr.  Keitly,  I  was 
told  that  the  Emperor  would  make  a  visit  that  day  to 
Diisseldorf.  I  went  to  a  hall  on  the  second  floor  of  a 
public  house  where  we  had  a  good  view  up  and  down 
the  street ;  there  we  saw  the  Emperor  with  his  suite  in 
procession,  one  carriage  following  another  having  out¬ 
riders.  There  were  a  great  many  people  gathered 
around  our  window,  men  and  women  trying  to  catch 
a  glimpse  of  the  procession.  One  lady  who  stood  near 
me  touched  me  on  the  arm  and  said  to  me  in  fairly 
good  English:  u  You  are  an  American  officer,  I  am 
told.”  I  said,  “  Yes,  I  am  General  Howard  of  the 
American  army.”  “  Then,”  she  asked,  “  do  you  know 
my  brother  in  the  United  States  1  ”  I  smiled  as  I 
thought  of  the  vast  expanse  of  the  United  States  and 
answered,  “  Pray,  tell  me  what  was  his  name?  ”  She 
replied,  “  His  name  is  A.  von  Steinwehr.”  Of  course 
I  was  surprised,  and  so  was  she  when  I  exclaimed, 
“  General  Steinwehr  was  under  my  command  when  I 

537 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

liad  tlie  Eleventh  Army  Corps !  He  commanded  a  di¬ 
vision  under  me  and  held  the  Cemetery  Ridge  the  first 
day  at  Gettysburg.” 

I  remained  till  August  30th  and  then  went  to 
make  another  visit  of  a  day  in  Cologne;  then  had  the 
pleasure  of  ascending  the  Rhine  and  of  contrasting  it 
with  the  Hudson ;  surely  there  was  beauty  everywhere. 
Of  course  we  were  reminded  of  many  of  the  old  legends 
when,  from  our  steamer  the  Humboldt ,  the  location  of 
ancient  castles  was  pointed  out. 

Landing  at  Bingen,  I  went  to  Paris  and  was  de¬ 
lighted  to  find  at  my  hotel  waiting  for  me,  my  son  and 
aid,  Lieutenant  Guy  Howard,  and  his  wife.  Later 
Miss  Clara  Greble  came  to  us  to  remain  with  Mrs. 
Guy  Howard  that  my  son  might  accompany  me  to  the 
French  maneuvers,  which  were  to  take  place  in  south¬ 
western  France,  near  the  Spanish  border. 


538 


CHAPTER  LXVIII 


FRENCH  ARMY  MANEUVERS,  1884;  PROMOTION  TO  MAJOR 
GENERAL,  UNITED  STATES  ARMY,  SAN  FRANCISCO 

1886-88 

T  N  Paris,  September  4,  1884,  Lieutenant  John  P. 
*■*  Wisser,  United  States  Army,  who  came  to  me  by 
direction  of  our  War  Department,  Captain  Guy  How¬ 
ard,  and  myself  joined  the  French  officers  who  were 
designated  to  guide  us  during  the  maneuvers  of  the 
Seventeenth  Corps  d’Armee  in  the  south  of  France. 
A  genial  young  officer,  Colonel  Rigault,  had  special 
charge  of  us  because  we  were  delegates  from  the 
United  States.  From  that  time  to  the  closing  review 
on  September  13th,  our  delegation,  with  representative 
officers  from  various  other  nations,  was  taken  by  rail 
by  carriages,  or  on  horseback  from  place  to  place.  At 
first,  arriving  at  any  desired  station,  horses,  with 
mounted  orderlies  holding  them,  were  ready  that  we 
might  follow  up  and  see  the  military  exercises  which 
were  already  mapped  out.  We  hastened  on  through 
groves,  forests,  or  open  fields,  often  galloping  to  the 
most  prominent  knoll,  where  we  could  observe  with 
clearness  the  movements  of  the  troops.1 

During  my  journeys  in  France  I  had  the  pleas¬ 
antest  relationship  with  General  Kuropatkin,  the 
officer  who  subsequently  became  famous  in  the  war 
between  Russia  and  Japan.  He  was  very  hand- 

1  In  my  report  made  to  the  War  Department  after  returning  to  America, 
full  accounts  were  given  of  these  interesting  exercises. 

539 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

some,  and  spoke  French  so  slowly  and  clearly  that 
with  my  limited  knowledge  of  the  language  I  could 
understand  him.  He  had  at  the  time  the  rank  of  field 
marshal,  and  wore  many  decorations,  and  was  un¬ 
doubtedly  the  most  popular  of  the  officers  who  were 
then  suddenly  thrown  together  in  this  unique  and 
harmless  campaign.  He  well  illustrated  a  high  order 
of  comradeship,  often  telling  of  his  odd  experiences 
in  Russia  and  pointing  them  with  happy  illustrations. 

Furthermore,  without  any  special  design  in  my  con¬ 
duct,  I  so  warmly  took  the  part  of  the  existing  repub¬ 
lican  Government  of  France  against  all  hostile  criti¬ 
cism  on  the  part  of  many  French  and  foreign  officers 
whom  I  met,  that  I  shortly  acquired  rather  an  unen¬ 
viable  fame. 

The  aristocratic  were  against  any  republic,  and 
particularly  adverse  to  the  French  President.  They  in¬ 
sisted  that  the  President,  as  is  always  customary  in 
our  country,  should  not  be  honored  with  a  special  toast 
at  the  closing  banquet.  I  had  a  mind  to  offer  a  toast 
in  his  behalf  on  that  occasion  and  defend  it,  but  I  could 
not  speak  French  well  enough  to  give  me  the  necessary 
confidence. 

Sunday,  September  14th,  we  reached  Vendome. 
Marquis  Rocliambeau,  a  descendant  of  Lafayette, 
whom  I  had  the  pleasure  of  entertaining  when  I  was 
superintendent  of  our  Military  Academy,  met  us  about 
midday  at  the  station,  and  drove  us  in  a  fine  carriage 
to  his  own  home  in  the  suburbs  of  the  city.  That  even¬ 
ing  we  met  many  French  people  in  a  reception  given 
by  the  noble  marquis  and  his  family;  there  were  pres¬ 
ent  distinguished  civilians  and  well-known  naval  offi¬ 
cers  of  high  rank,  and  I  was  impressed  by  their  at¬ 
tainments  and  high-toned  gentility.  The  next  day,  my 

540 


French  Army  Maneuvers,  1884 

son,  Lieutenant  Howard,  and  Lieutenant  Wisser  left 
me  and  went  to  Paris. 

On  Monday,  September  15th,  the  marquis  and  his 
two  boys,  accompanied  by  a  single  manservant  and 
two  small  hounds,  entertained  me  by  a  short  hunting 
expedition.  We  did  not  succeed  in  getting  any  rabbits 
or  other  game,  yet  we  beat  up  the  hedges  and  went 
through  all  the  forms  and  exercises  of  a  veritable  hunt. 
As  soon  as  this  rather  fruitless  effort  was  over  we  vis¬ 
ited  the  Castle  Levidin,  which  was  very  old  and  crum¬ 
bling,  like  so  many  other  notable  ruins  in  that  part  of 
France.  Our  host  showed  the  ancient  church— a 
brownstone  edifice,  distinguished  by  a  cross  and  thick 
covering  of  beautiful  vines.  The  marquis  pointed  out 
the  peasants’  small  houses,  grouped  in  little  villages, 
and  told  me  they  were  occupied  by  the  men  who  culti¬ 
vated  the  surrounding  fields  of  his  large  estate.  We 
had  had  a  delightful  ride,  after  our  hunt,  in  “  the  vil¬ 
lage  wagon,”  the  boys  attending  us  on  horseback.  At 
the  close  of  this  pleasant  day  we  dined  again  with  the 
family,  the  parish  priest  favoring  us  with  his  lively 
company.  The  honored  marquis  had  a  delightful 
home  of  which  his  charming  wife  was  the  center, 
sprightly,  cheerful,  and  happy,  never  at  a  loss  to  en¬ 
tertain  those  with  whom  she  came  in  contact.  The 
kindness  of  this  family  to  all  the  people  round  about 
was  marked  and  seemed  to  be  reciprocated,  though 
there  were  no  signs  of  wealth  on  the  part  of  the  pro¬ 
prietor  or  of  the  villagers. 

After  an  early  breakfast  Tuesday,  the  16tli,  the  good 
marquis  accompanied  me  to  Paris.  When  I  bade  their 
family  good-by  I  hoped  that  I  might  return  to  them 
at  some  time  and  again  enjoy  their  cheerful  company. 
No  society  pleases  more  than  that  of  the  French  peo- 

541 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

pie,  where  they  have,  as  these  do,  pure  morals,  elegant 
manners,  and  high  culture. 

I  joined  my  friends  in  Paris  in  the  middle  of  the 
afternoon.  That  evening  our  ambassador,  the  Hon. 
Levi  P.  Morton,  returned  the  call  that  I  had  previously 
made  upon  him.  Without  previous  warning  he  pre¬ 
sented  to  me  from  the  President  of  the  French  Re¬ 
public,  M.  Carnot,  the  beautiful  decoration  of  the  Le¬ 
gion  of  Honor.  Of  course,  I  was  surprised  and  pleased 
with  this  favor  and  I  regarded  it  as  a  compliment  to 
our  Government,  which  I  had  represented  in  the  ma¬ 
neuvers.  That  very  night  a  great  dinner  was  given  to 
all  of  the  foreign  military  officers  by  the  war  secretary. 
It  was  a  brilliant  affair,  French  officers  of  high  rank 
and  distinguished  civilians  being  present.  Encour¬ 
aged  by  the  ambassador,  I  ventured  to  wear  the  much- 
prized  decoration  which  he  had  given  me. 

I  was  soon  in  England,  where  I  again  met  my  son 
Guy  and  his  wife.  One  evening  I  had  the  great  privi¬ 
lege  of  listening  to  Charles  H.  Spurgeon.  It  was  diffi¬ 
cult  for  me  to  get  a  seat  in  the  remotest  corner  of  the 
gallery,  and  surely  there  were  10,000  people  present 
in  the  immense  auditorium.  The  great  majority  of 
the  people  had  Bibles  in  their  hands  and  either  read 
in  concert  or  looked  over  what  Mr.  Spurgeon  was  read¬ 
ing.  Though  so  far  away,  the  instant  I  heard  the 
man’s  voice,  which  permeated  the  audience  and  seemed 
to  resound  from  floor  to  ceiling,  and  from  the  pulpit 
to  the  back  of  the  upper  gallery,  it  struck  me  as  differ¬ 
ent  from  any  voice  that  I  had  ever  heard.  It  was  as 
clear  as  a  bell  and  each  word  of  his  simple  prayer  was 
heard  by  every  man  and  woman  in  the  vast  assembly. 
His  preaching  was  plain  and  clear,  without  any  effort 
at  rhetorical  effects,  and  held  us  all  in  breathless  at- 

542 


French  Army  Maneuvers,  1884 

tention.  Spurgeon’s  subject  was  “  A  Call  to  Duty.” 
Surely  all  present  heard  the  call. 

It  would  have  delighted  me  could  I  have  seen  the 
British  Houses  of  Parliament  in  session,  especially 
the  House  of  Lords,  that  conservative  body  which  has 
preserved  the  equipoise  of  government  through  so 
many  centuries  between  the  throne  and  the  people. 
I  enjoyed  the  Department  of  War,  comparing  it  with 
ours  in  Washington,  but  more  than  anything  St.  Paul’s 
Church  and  the  statue  of  John  Howard  the  philan¬ 
thropist.  Quite  early  in  life  I  obtained  as  good  a  pic¬ 
ture  as  I  could  of  his  features  and  I  was  glad  to  study 
them  in  sculpture. 

At  the  Woolwich  arsenal,  I  was  astonished  at  the. 
extent  of  the  buildings,  so  well  filled  with  every  class 
of  proper  supplies.  To  the  British  we  can  apply  the 
words  “  Semper  parcitus,” — especially  in  war  material. 

October  1st  I  met  Lieutenant  Wisser  at  the  London 
Exchange.  We  were  both  looking  for  advices  from 
home.  From  there  we  passed  on  to  the  famous  Mor- 
ley  House,  and  thence,  taking  leave  of  him,  I  stayed  a 
while  at  the  Paternoster  Row.  There  I  saw  Mr.  Hod- 
der,  President  of  the  Young  Men’s  Christian  Associa¬ 
tion,  whom  I  met  in  the  United  States.  He  took  me  to 
Sir  George  Williams,  who  was  the  founder  of  the 
Young  Men’s  Christian  Associations  of  the  world,  and 
whom  Queen  Victoria  knighted  for  this,  the  magnifi¬ 
cent  work  of  his  life.  He  appeared  very  glad  to  meet 
me  again,  for  we  had  been  together  in  Germany,  and 
invited  me  to  a  lunch.  He  was  still  intensely  inter¬ 
ested  in  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  work,  especially  just  then  in 
France.  To  this  work  he  was  constantly  making  con¬ 
tributions.  Sir  George  appeared  to  be  a  man  of  de¬ 
cided  business  ability,  and  was  always  remarkable  for 

543 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

an  unfailing  kindness — indeed,  large-heartedness  was 
plainly  written  in  his  face. 

October  2d,  when  I  arrived  in  Birmingham,  Mr. 
Howard  Lloyd,  the  banker,  took  me  in  his  carriage 
through  part  of  the  city  and  then  out  into  the  country. 
After  a  swift  suburban  ride,  we  stopped  at  his  resi¬ 
dence.  All  the  country  round  about  reminded  me  of  the 
beautiful  suburbs  of  Philadelphia.  Mr.  Lloyd’s  wife 
was  a  Howard  and  the  daughter  of  a  well-known  phy¬ 
sician.  I  found  here  a  charming  family — at  least  a 
half  dozen  beautiful  children.  I  had  come  to  give  a 
promised  address,  having  engaged  to  do  so  at  our 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  Convention  in  Berlin.  That  evening  Mr. 
Lloyd  took  me  to  a  large  auditorium  belonging  to  the 
Y.  M.  C.  A.  of  Birmingham  and  I  had  a  full  house  and 
a  very  attentive  audience.  On  this  occasion  I  endeav¬ 
ored  to  show  them  something  of  the  work  of  our 
LTnited  States  Christian  Commission  which  the  young 
men  had  set  in  motion  during  the  Civil  War.  In  Eng¬ 
land  one  thing  was  evident,  that  the  young  men  them¬ 
selves,  members  of  the  association,  were  striving  all 
the  while  to  do  good  to  others,  and  not  simply  to  be 
the  recipients  of  bounty. 

From  Birmingham  I  passed  on  rapidly  via  London 
to  Antwerp.  Our  journeys  had  been  so  timed  that  my 
son  Jamie  and  Miss  Adelheid  von  Bodemeyer,  accom¬ 
panied  by  a  friend  from  Gottingen,  met  me.  We  four 
took  passage  on  the  steamer  Nederland  October  4, 
1884.  The  weather  was  rough  and  the  waves  trouble¬ 
some  till  we  passed  beyond  the  North  Sea,  then  the 
weather  was  fine. 

October  18th,  early  in  the  morning,  we  were  at 
last  at  Sandy  Hook  and  by  twelve  noon  were  at 
Jersey  City.  The  Customhouse  officers  were  polite 

544 


French  Army  Maneuvers,  1884 

and  pleasant  to  us,  so  that  we  were  not  long  de¬ 
tained. 

I  hastened  to  Brooklyn.  There  Mrs.  Buck  and  her 
sister  were  in  great  sorrow.  Mr.  R.  P.  Buck,  almost 
the  last  one  to  bid  me  Godspeed  on  my  departure,  had 
died  during  my  absence.  I  had  not  a  better  friend 
outside  my  family,  and  I  sorrowed  with  them. 

After  a  few  days  in  New  York,  October  20th,  with 
my  party  I  set  out  for  the  West.  My  boys  and  the 
officers  met  us  at  the  depot  in  Omaha,  and  all  the  fam¬ 
ily  were  soon  gathered  around  the  home  table  once 
more. 

In  the  spring  of  1885,  having  an  inspection  tour  to 
make  to  the  Yellowstone  National  Park,  which  was 
within  the  limits  of  my  department,  I  enjoyed  a  brief 
sojourn  with  Mrs.  Howard  and  a  party  of  friends  amid 
the  wonders  of  that  region.  The  traces  of  my  route 
when  pursuing  Chief  Joseph  in  the  Nez  Perces  War, 
were  still  visible. 

Our  four  years’  stay  in  Omaha  was  delightful  in 
every  respect  and  many  were  the  friends  we  made 
there.  Our  Y.  M.  C.  A.  work  was  well  started  and  es¬ 
pecially  did  I  enjoy  my  relations  with  the  First  Con¬ 
gregational  Church,  whose  pastor,  Dr.  A.  F.  Sherrill, 
became  the  closest  of  friends  to  me  and  my  family. 

Early  in  February  the  death  of  General  Hancock 
was  announced.  My  own  promotion  followed  March  19, 
1886.  Immediately  there  was  excitement  for  my  fam¬ 
ily  and  that  of  my  personal  staff.  Possessions  that 
had  accumulated  had  to  be  disposed  of  and  everything 
prepared  for  a  move.  The  order  came  with  my  pro¬ 
motion  to  major  general  for  me  to  pass  from  Omaha 
to  California  and  assume  command  of  the  military  di¬ 
vision  which  then  embraced  the  entire  Pacific  coast. 

545 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

The  journey  was  quickly  made  and  on  April  17th  I 
issued  an  order  assuming  command  according  to  my 
instructions.  At  first  I  made  my  military  headquar¬ 
ters,  as  my  predecessor  had  done,  at  the  Presidio ;  but 
I  took  my  family  to  reside  in  a  charming  spot  about 
halfway  between  the  Presidio  and  the  Oakland  land¬ 
ing  in  San  Francisco.  There  was  here  a  large  resi¬ 
dence  which  General  McDowell  had  remodeled,  the  very 
place  where  Mrs.  Howard  and  I  had  been  entertained 
by  the  McDowells  some  years  before.  Near  it  was  an 
army  post  of  two  companies  commanded  by  Major 
John  A.  Darling.  The  post  was  officially  called  Fort 
Mason,  but  habitually  by  civilians  Black  Point.  One 
aid-de-camp  occupied  a  pretty  cottage  at  the  post.  The 
grounds  of  our  main  house  were  very  charming — the 
trees  of  the  southern  and  tropical  growth,  the  hedges 
all  around  of  geranium,  larger  than  I  had  ever  seen 
before,  and  seventy-five  varieties  of  roses  beautified 
a  square.  After  passing  through  a  high  gateway,  and 
by  the  watchful  sentinel,  we  were  within  a  veritable 
paradise.  Taken  in  connection  with  the  climate,  at  all 
times  genial,  our  residence  as  a  family  in  San  Fran¬ 
cisco  will  never  be  forgotten. 

Soon  after  our  arrival  here,  we  received  the  happy 
news  that  our  third  son,  Chancey,  whom  we  had  left 
in  Omaha,  had  married  Miss  Alice  G.  Rustin  of  that 
city.  We  had  named  him  Chancey  as  he  was  born  on 
the  second  day  of  the  battle  of  Chancellorsville.  He 
has  for  some  years  been  a  Special  Examiner  of  Pen¬ 
sions  for  the  Government.  His  happy  household — a 
wife,  three  sons  and  a  daughter — constantly  remind 
me  of  our  own  earlier  family. 


546 


CHAPTER  LXIX 


TRANSFERRED  TO  NEW  YORK  CITY 

WE  united  with  the  First  Congregational  Church 
of  San  Francisco,  whose  pastor  was  Rev.  C.  D. 
Barrows.  He  was  very  enterprising,  and  with  him  I 
entered  into  church  work  with  earnestness.  He  set 
apart  his  pastor’s  study  on  Sundays  for  my  Bible 
class,  and  the  class  was  very  successful.  The  room 
was  usually  full.  We  all  profited  by  the  choice  fel¬ 
lowship  of  this  church.  The  Young  Men’s  Christian 
Association  of  San  Francisco  was  thriving  under  the 
superb  leadership  of  H.  J.  McCoy,  the  general  secre¬ 
tary.  He  soon  called  upon  me  to  assist  him  in  his 
operations,  not  only  for  the  city  hut  for  the  coast.  My 
association  with  the  Loyal  Legion  and  Grand  Army 
posts  was  exceedingly  pleasant. 

During  this  tour  of  duty  there  was  restlessness 
again  among  the  Apaches  of  Arizona.  General  Nelson 
A.  Miles  commanded  that  department,  which  formed  a 
part  of  my  military  division.  The  Chiricahua  Apaches 
had  been  surrounded  by  a  cavalry  force,  taken  in  a 
body  a  hundred  miles  northward  to  San  Carlos,  and 
put  on  a  reservation  with  Indians  who  were  hostile 
to  them.  This  was  done  ostensibly  because  some 
Apaches  had  become  intoxicated  and  committed  griev¬ 
ous  offenses.  As  soon  as  I  knew  of  this  enforced  re¬ 
moval,  I  said :  “  The  Chiricahuas  will  break  out.”  The 

547 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

next  mail  brought  me  news  that  Geronimo  was  lead¬ 
ing  in  a  raid  against  the  people  of  Arizona  southward. 
The  campaign  of  General  Miles  ensued;  the  Indians 
after  capture  or  surrender  were  taken  first  to  Florida 
and  afterwards  to  Mount  Vernon,  Ala.  With  them 
went  a  small  portion  of  the  Aravipa  Apaches  under 
Eskiminzin.  There  seems  to  have  been  no  reason 
whatever  for  taking  Eskiminzin  and  his  people,  as 
they  were  not  engaged  in  the  raid. 

At  one  time  I  had  word  from  the  Apaches  begging 
me  to  come  down  and  see  them  and  stating  that  they 
would  give  themselves  into  my  hands ;  but  I  answered 
that  I  was  unwilling  to  interfere  because  they  had 
broken  their  treaty  with  me. 

General  Shatter  was  then  colonel  of  the  First  In¬ 
fantry  and  commanding  his  regiment  in  my  depart¬ 
ment  at  Angel  Island.  I  saw  much  of  him,  especially 
in  our  summer  encampments,  and  always  found  him 
a  diligent  officer  in  the  performance  of  duty.  I  did 
not  see  him  after  I  left  California  till  I  met  him  in 
Florida  during  the  Spanish  War,  when  he  was  in  com¬ 
mand  of  the  active  column  at  Tampa. 

I  renewed  an  exceedingly  pleasant  acquaintance 
with  General  Alexander  Piper1  whom  I  knew  when  a 
cadet.  He  was  now  colonel  of  the  Fifth  Artillery  and 
commanded  at  the  Presidio. 

I  kept  up  my  studies,  wrote  many  articles  for  publi¬ 
cation,  and  prepared  lectures,  such  as  “  Grant  and  his 
Generals,”  “  The  Life  of  General  George  H.  Thomas,” 
“  Sherman  and  his  March  to  the  Sea.”  These  and 
“  Gettysburg  ”  were  my  secular  lectures,  but  for  Chris¬ 
tian  efforts  in  public  I  delivered  on  Sundays  or  before 

1  He  met  with  a  sad  death  at  the  burning  of  the  Park  Hotel,  in  1902, 
losing  his  life  in  the  conflagration. 

548 


Transferred  to  New  York  City 

religious  bodies,  among  others,  “  The  Power  of  Small 
Things,”  “  Father  Love,  Patriotic  and  Christian.”  I 
could  always  please  an  audience  better  when  I  spoke 
without  a  manuscript.  The  manuscript  usually  had 
the  effect  either  to  repress  my  attempts  at  humor  or 
the  audience’s  appreciation  of  it. 

In  official  work  I  had  for  my  adjutant  general 
first  my  classmate  General  0.  D.  Green,  and  later  Gen¬ 
eral  Chauncey  McKeever.  My  aids  were  Lieutenant 
Edwin  St.  J.  Greble,  son  of  my  favorite  classmate,  and 
Lieutenant  George  N.  Chase.  General  Sherman  had 
greatly  desired  for  the  sake  of  economy  to  have  di¬ 
vision  and  department  headquarters  established  at  the 
army  posts  nearest  to  the  towns  or  cities,  and  it  was 
so  arranged  until  an  Act  of  Congress  directed  that 
they  be  returned  to  the  cities.  By  the  President’s  or¬ 
der  sent  through  General  Sherman  our  Military  Divi¬ 
sion  and  Department  of  California  went  back  from  the 
Presidio  to  the  Phelan  Building  in  San  Francisco. 

Sherman  having  retired,  Sheridan  was  in  command 
of  the  army  till  his  death  at  Nonquitt,  Mass.,  August 
5,  1888.  During  his  last  illness  he  had  been  promoted 
to  full  generalship.  This  rank  he  held  for  about  two 
months.  As  soon  as  his  death  was  announced  General 
Schofield  was  placed  in  command  of  the  Army  of  the 
United  States. 

About  November  1,  1888,  my  adjutant  general  was 
temporarily  absent  and  my  presence  at  the  headquar¬ 
ters  of  my  division  had  never  been  more  necessary,  but 
by  every  mail  I  was  receiving  word  of  the  extreme 
illness  of  my  good  mother,  then  living  with  my  brother 
General  C.  H.  Howard,  at  Glencoe,  Ill.  My  brother 
wrote  about  that  time:  “If  you  expect  to  see  mother 
alive  you  must  come  quickly.”  This  distressed  me 

549 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

greatly,  but  I  saw  no  way  to  leave  my  post,  when  un¬ 
expectedly  a  vacancy  occurred  in  the  command  of  the 
Military  Division  of  the  East,  headquarters  at  Govern¬ 
or’s  Island. 

Just  as  soon  as  I  could  get  ready  I  set  out  for  Glen¬ 
coe  and  arrived  in  time  to  spend  a  little  over  a  week 
with  my  mother.  I  went  from  her  sickroom  to  Gov¬ 
ernor’s  Island  in  time  to  assume  command  on  Decem¬ 
ber  12th.  My  mother’s  death  took  place  two  days 
later.  I  had  left  her  so  cheerful  and  ready  to  depart 
and  be  with  her  Saviour  that  I  did  not  attempt  to  go 
back  to  see  her  again. 

My  aids,  Lieutenants  Greble  and  Chase,  came  with 
me  to  the  new  field.  The  great  care  of  packing  up 
our  household  goods  in  San  Francisco  was  left  to  Mrs. 
Howard,  and  with  the  children  she  came  across  the 
continent  by  the  Canadian  Pacific.  We  were  soon  all 
together  again  at  Governor’s  Island. 

As  I  had  care  of  both  the  Military  Division  and  the 
Department  of  the  East,  there  was  an  abundance  of 
official  work.  Shortly  after  this,  very  sensibly,  the 
military  divisions  were  abolished  and  thereafter,  with 
the  loss  of  a  few  grains  of  official  dignity,  I  commanded 
only  the  department,  but  it  took  a  sweep  of  country 
big  enough  for  ordinary  ambition.  It  extended  from 
the  Lakes  to  the  foot  of  Louisiana.  Not  a  very  active 
command  with  only  twenty-odd  army  posts  to  look  out 
for,  but  one’s  eyes  had  to  be  kept  open  during  strikes, 
labor  troubles,  and  riots,  or  disturbance  beyond  the 
control  of  the  States  and  cities  within  that  domain. 
In  peace,  contingencies  must  be  meditated  upon,  and 
the  army  commander  be  always  ready  for  prompt 
action. 

During  1889,  when  making  my  inspections,  I  visited 

550 


Major  General  Howard,  Commanding  Department  of  the  East,  1888. 


Transferred  to  New  York  City 

Mount  Vernon,  Ala.,  and  met  the  Indians,  with  Geron- 
imo  and  Eskiminzin.  It  is  impossible  to  describe  the 
meeting.  The  men  ran  to  me  and  embraced  me  with 
what  I  call  the  “  double  embrace,”  and  the  women 
brought  their  children  for  me  to  put  my  hands  on  them 
and  bless  them.  Geronimo  declared  that  he  was  go¬ 
ing  to  do  his  best  to  have  the  children  educated,  and 
Eskiminzin  begged  hard  to  return  to  his  own  farm  in 
Arizona.  They  all  declared  they  would  do  anything  I 
told  them  to  do.  We  had  formed  two  Indian  compa¬ 
nies  from  the  Indian  prisoners,  one  stationed  at  Mount 
Vernon  and  the  other  at  Fort  Pickens.  From  both 
companies  I  had  nothing  but  excellent  reports,  and  as 
soon  as  it  was  at  all  practicable  we  had  the  rest  sent 
to  the  Indian  Territory,  where  they  have  been  ever 
since.  One  trouble  with  having  regular  Indian  mili¬ 
tary  companies  was  that  white  soldiers  would  not  serve 
under  Indian  noncommissioned  officers,  and  another 
difficulty  was  the  impossibility  of  having  an  Indian’s 
family  with  him.  They,  however,  made  the  best  of 
irregular  troops  and  scouts.  It  was  not  long  before 
all  the  young  Indians  were  mustered  out  and  joined 
their  people. 

In  the  same  year  in  New  York  City  we  had  the 
Washington  Centennial  Parade  in  honor  of  the  inau¬ 
guration  of  George  Washington.  It  lasted  three  days. 
On  the  last  day  of  the  month  of  April  was  the  mili¬ 
tary  participation.  All  the  troops  I  could  gather  were 
brought  together  and  led  in  column.  Major  General 
Fitzgerald,  being  a  major  general  commanding  the 
New  York  National  Guard,  objected  to  the  regulars 
preceding  his  troops,  because  commanded  by  only  a 
lieutenant  colonel  of  engineers.  I  had  been  re¬ 
quested  to  join  the  President  and  others  at  the  review- 

551 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

ing  stand,  but  as  soon  as  the  difficulty  was  reported 
to  me,  and  knowing  that  I  was  senior  in  rank  to  Fitz¬ 
gerald,  I  entered  the  column  myself  in  command  of  the 
small  contingent  of  regulars.  This  arrangement  made 
everything  go  off  without  any  further  friction. 

As  a  family  we  changed  our  church  relationship 
from  San  Francisco  to  the  New  York  Broadway  Taber¬ 
nacle,  and  it  was  our  great  pleasure  and  profit  to  sit 
under  the  preaching  of  Dr.  William  Taylor.  On  our 
return  from  church  one  day  my  youngest  son,  Harry, 
suggested  that  we  might  find  some  missionary  work 
nearer  home  for  Sunday  afternoons.-  A  little  later 
we  found  over  an  old  stable  on  Elizabeth  Street  a 
Sunday  school  which  was  a  part  of  “  Camp  Memorial 
Church.”  It  was  near  Grand  Street,  New  York,  and 
had  a  faithful  young  man,  Mr.  Meyerholtz,  for  superin¬ 
tendent.  As  there  was  a  dearth  of  teachers,  my  son 
and  I  took  classes  and  continued  with  the  school  un¬ 
til  my  retirement.  The  accommodations  in  the  old 
hall  were  so  poor  and  the  atmosphere  so  bad  that  we 
began  to  seek  for  new  quarters.  We  finally  bought 
a  very  suitable  old  church  edifice  on  Chrystie  Street. 
To  pay  for  this  church  and  make  necessary  repairs 
I  was  made  collector  of  funds.  Just  as  I  had  gathered 
together  between  three  and  four  thousand  dollars  for 
the  last  payment,  and  a  couple  of  days  before  I  was  to 
hand  over  the  money,  the  bank  where  I  made  my  de¬ 
posit  failed.  The  next  day  I  borrowed  the  money  and 
completed  the  payment  on  the  church.  In  a  short  time 
friends  kindly  assisted  me  in  raising  the  debt.  This 
“  Camp  Memorial  Church  ”  was  later  aided  by  the  Con¬ 
gregational  Missionary  Society,  and  it  has  had  over 
twenty  years  of  very  successful  missionary  effort. 

Now  living  so  near  New  York,  I  frequently  met 

552 


Transferred  to  New  York  City 

Sherman,  my  old  and  beloved  commander,  at  his  home 
on  Seventy-second  Street,  and  also  at  public  entertain¬ 
ments.  He  was  very  fond  of  having  Slocum  and  my¬ 
self  (left  and  right  wing  commanders)  with  him,  and 
when  he  could  he  secured  us  seats,  the  one  on  his  right 
and  the  other  on  his  left.  He  then  seemed  to  be  very 
hearty  and  strong,  but  during  the  winter  of  1890  and 
1891  he  had  a  severe  attack  of  erysipelas.  Just 
before  his  death,  which  resulted  from  this  illness,  Feb¬ 
ruary  14,  1891,  he  expressed  a  strong  desire  that  his 
two  wing  commanders,  Howard  and  Slocum,  should 
conduct  his  funeral  services.  Accordingly  his  broth¬ 
er,  Hon.  John  Sherman,  wrote  and  asked  us  to  do  so. 
We  selected  one  of  his  division  commanders,  General 
Daniel  Butterfield,  for  the  immediate  control  and  di¬ 
rection  of  the  New  York  processions,  which  were  very 
extensive.  I  myself  went  to  St.  Louis  and  was  pres¬ 
ent  at  the  final  obsequies,  participating  in  the  work  of 
the  escort  and  all  ceremonies,  and  attending  his  re¬ 
mains  to  their  last  resting  place  beside  those  of  his 
wife,  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi.  His  son,  Fa¬ 
ther  Sherman,  a  Jesuit  priest,  admirably  conducted 
all  the  religious  exercises  for  his  father  in  St.  Louis. 
I  asked  the  young  man  how  he  had  the  strength  to  do 
it.  He  smiled  and  replied  by  a  question  to  this  effect, 
“  General,  do  you  know  what  it  is  to  obey  orders?  ” 
Though  General  Sherman  was  not  a  Catholic,  all  the 
services  were  under  the  direction  of  the  Catholic 
church.  His  brother  said  to  me  that  this  was  a  com¬ 
fort  to  his  children.  As  the  casket  containing  his  re¬ 
mains  had  been  brought  out  and  was  waiting  a  few 
minutes  on  the  upper  step  of  his  house,  the  pallbearers 
stood  on  the  right  and  left  with  uncovered  heads.  The 
weather  was  exceedingly  cold.  Some  one  said  to  Gen- 

553 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

eral  Joseph  E.  Johnston,  one  of  the  bearers:  “  Gen¬ 
eral,  put  on  your  hat,  you  will  take  cold.”  Johnston 
answered :  “If  I  were  in  his  place  and  he  standing 
here  in  mine  he  would  not  put  on  his  hat.”  Thus  deli¬ 
cately  he  signified  his  deep  regard  for  Sherman.  In 
fact,  these  two,  after  their  campaign  was  over,  behaved 
always  toward  each  other  as  brothers.  General  John¬ 
ston  did  take  cold  at  that  funeral,  and  his  own  sick¬ 
ness  and  death  in  Washington  City  followed  soon 
after.  I  was  present  at  his  funeral.  He  had  a  mili¬ 
tary  escort  of  Confederate  friends  but  without  arms. 
I  noticed  them  as  they  swung  from  line  to  column, 
obeying  their  orders  with  promptitude  like  the  veteran 
soldiers  that  they  were. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  I  took  my  family  to 
Florida.  We  enjoyed  the  hospitality  of  the  Hon.  H. 
M.  Flagler.  What  he  has  done  for  the  eastern  por¬ 
tion  of  Florida  is  enormous  in  its  inception  and  re¬ 
sults.  Our  stay  later  at  Key  West  was  made  very 
pleasant.  Here  I  met  three  colored  young  men,  who 
were  graduates  of  Howard  University.  One  of  the 
young  men  was  superintendent  of  colored  schools.  He 
presented  us  with  a  very  beautiful  basket  of  shells. 
The  editor  of  the  Key  West  Journal  told  me  that  he 
did  not  know  what  Key  West  would  have  done  if  it 
had  not  been  for  these  three  young  men.  The  school 
superintendent  was  a  druggist  and  a  graduate  phar¬ 
macist.  I  spent  one  day  in  visiting  his  excellent 
schools.  Nothing  gratified  me  more  than  to  find  the 
alumni  of  my  favorite  institution  useful  and  appre¬ 
ciated. 

We  made  a  very  pleasant  trip  at  this  time  across 
the  narrow  gulf  to  Havana.  Patriotic  Cubans  then 
came  to  me  and  opened  their  hearts.  They  were  hop- 

554 


Transferred  to  New  York  City 

ing  that  Cuba,  throwing  off  the  yoke  of  Spain,  might 
sometime  gain  her  freedom.  While  standing  beside 
the  statue  of  Columbus  I  spoke  to  a  Cuban  with  refer¬ 
ence  to  Isabella  and  the  projected  Columbian  Expo¬ 
sition  in  Chicago.  He  was  glad,  he  said,  that  so  much 
was  to  be  made  of  Columbus.  A  little  later  I  had  an 
interview  with  the  captain  general,  who  was  a  Span¬ 
iard.  I  remarked  that  we  Americans  recognized  the 
fact  that  Isabella  was  the  patroness  who  rendered 
Columbus’s  voyage  possible. 

“  Yes,”  he  answered,  “  but  why  is  it  that  in  all 
America  there  is  not  a  monument  raised  to  her  mem¬ 
ory?  ”  This  question  was  the  cause  of  my  writing  the 
life  of  Isabella  of  Castile ;  not  as  a  monument,  but  with 
a  view  to  quicken  the  interest,  as  far  as  I  might  be 
able  to  do,  in  a  character  which  certainly  deserves  a 
very  tender  recognition  from  all  who  have  been  bene¬ 
fited  and  blessed  by  the  discoveries  of  Christopher 
Columbus. 

Our  daughter  Bessie  had  finished  her  studies  at 
Farmington,  Conn.,  and  returned  home.  Harry  had 
passed  through  a  severe  attack  of  typhoid  fever,  and 
Mrs.  Howard  and  I  thought  that  it  would  be  a  good 
plan  for  them  to  go  abroad  together  and  perfect  their 
French  at  the  house  of  our  good  friend,  M.  Adolph 
Chauvet,  in  Evreux,  France.  This  was  done  and  the 
following  January  Mrs.  Howard  left  New  York  on  the 
Friesland ,  and  after  a  pleasant  voyage  joined  the  chil¬ 
dren,  and  they  traveled  together. 

My  brother,  Rev.  Rowland  B.  Howard,  had  gone 
to  a  Peace  Convention  held  in  Rome.  He  was  ill  be¬ 
fore  starting  and  was  made  much  worse  by  his  journey 
from  London  to  Rome.  In  the  convention  as  secretary 
of  the  American  Peace  Society  he  took  a  most  active 

555 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

part  in  the  speeches  and  in  the  proceedings,  especially 
pleading  for  a  positive  recognition  of  Christ  in  the  de¬ 
liberation  of  the  Peace  Convention.  His  last  speech, 
eloquent  and  strong,  increased  his  illness,  and  he  was 
placed  in  a  private  hospital,  St.  Paul’s  Home.  Here 
he  was  attended  by  Dr.  Robert  Prochet,  Dr.  Young, 
and  a  competent  American  nurse,  Miss  Daniels,  of 
Brattleboro,  Vt.,  and  though  he  had  every  possible 
attention  and  care,  he  died  January  25,  1892.  My  son 
Harry,  then  in  France,  went  immediately  to  Rome, 
settled  up  his  affairs,  and  sent  his  remains  to  Leeds, 
Me.,  for  burial. 

During  the  year  1892  I  was  asked  by  D.  Appleton 
&  Co.  to  write  a  book  for  their  Great  Commanders 
series  on  the  life  of  General  Zachary  Taylor.  In  the 
prosecution  of  this  work  I  was  wonderfully  helped  by 
my  honored  friend,  Francis  W.  Upliam,  LL.D.,  of 
New  York;  in  fact,  Mr.  Upham’s  reminiscences  were 
invaluable.  For  years  the  hospitality  of  himself  and, 
since  his  decease,  of  Mrs.  Upham,  who  contributed 
liberally  to  my  educational  efforts  in  Tennessee,  is 
full  of  bright  sunshine  in  retrospect. 

I  enjoyed  making  a  thorough  study  of  Taylor’s 
career,  going  to  every  place  where  history  said  he  had 
been,  and  taking  a  trip  to  Old  Mexico  to  see  his  battle¬ 
fields.  On  this  agreeable  visit  I  was  accompanied  by 
Captain  and  Mrs.  Guy  Howard,  Captain  and  Mrs. 
Charles  R.  Barnett,  Mrs.  Shoemaker  and  daughter,  of 
Baltimore,  and  Mrs.  Barnett’s  mother  and  sister.  Be¬ 
fore  starting,  the  Mexican  Minister  Romero,  who  so 
generously  befriended  General  Grant  in  New  York, 
gave  me  letters  to  the  President  of  the  Mexican  Re¬ 
public  and  to  others.  Their  kindness  met  me  as  soon 
as  1  crossed  the  border.  At  Camargo  the  commandant 

556 


I 


Transferred  to  New  York  City 

had  his  battalion  under  arms  to  do  me  honor  at  ten 
o’clock  at  night.  The  same  thing  occurred  later,  on 
our  arrival  at  Matamoras.  As  soon  as  I  reached  the 
City  of  Mexico,  an  officer  of  rank,  designated  by  Presi¬ 
dent  Diaz,  met  us  at  the  station  and  showed  our  party 
every  attention  during  our  stay  at  the  capital.  I  en¬ 
joyed  more  than  anything  else  the  kind  reception 
President  Diaz  gave  me.  He  showed  at  once  his  in¬ 
tense  interest  in  the  education  of  his  people,  and 
desired  me  to  visit  the  schools  and  particularly  the 
Industrial  and  Reform  School  which  he  had  estab¬ 
lished  for  delinquent  youth. 

By  the  courtesy  of  General  Frisbee,  of  whom  I  had 
heard  before  my  visit,  I  was  able  to  see  all  the  forts 
that  became  historic  during  our  war  with  Mexico,  and 
from  his  lips  I  obtained  brief  and  interesting  sketches 
of  each  notable  conflict. 

At  the  President’s  suggestion  we  took  a  trip  to  the 
vicinity  of  Vera  Cruz,  where  General  Scott  began  his 
operations  in  1847,  but  we  were  vastly  more  inter¬ 
ested  in  the  coffee  plantations  which  we  found  on  our 
route. 

President  Diaz  appeared  to  me  to  be  a  man  of  de¬ 
cided  ability,  who  combined  marked  courtesy  with 
prompt  decision.  After  seeing  him,  I  have  understood 
why  he  has  continued  so  long  at  the  head  of  affairs, 
and  aided  so  materially  in  the  development  and  prog¬ 
ress  of  Mexico.  It  comes  from  the  strong  character 
of  the  man. 


557 


CHAPTER  LXX 


D.  L.  MOODY  ON  BOARD  THE  SPREE ;  SPANISH  WAR,  1898; 
LINCOLN  MEMORIAL  UNIVERSITY  ;  CONCLUSION 

WHILE  writing  the  life  of  Isabella,  I  felt  the  lack 
of  local  knowledge,  and  so  determined,  if  I 
could  get  a  leave  of  absence,  to  visit  Spain.  Gen¬ 
eral  Schofield,  commanding  the  army,  gave  me  permis¬ 
sion  to  be  absent  from  my  headquarters  from  October 
15th  for  two  months.  At  that  time  I  had  on  my  per¬ 
sonal  staff  Lieutenant  Charles  G.  Treat 1  as  aid-de- 
camp,  and  he  accompanied  me,  leaving  New  York 
October  15th,  on  the  steamer  Fulda ,  North  German 
Lloyd.  I  enjoyed  the  passage  from  New  York  to 
Gibraltar  exceedingly. 

On  Sunday  morning  we  had  a  public  religious  serv¬ 
ice  at  which  I  read  selections  from  the  sermons  of 
Bishop  Brooks.  Noticing  that  an  Italian  Catholic 
priest,  on  his  way  from  Kansas  to  Italy,  did  not  par¬ 
ticipate  in  the  service,  I  rallied  him  pleasantly  on  the 
subject.  He  said  that  he  had  had  a  headache  and  that 
was  the  reason  he  did  not  come  out.  I  then  said  to 
him:  “Father,  why  don’t  you  preach  the  Gospel!” 
He  answered:  “What  do  you  mean,  General  Howard! 
I  do  preach  the  Gospel.” 

I  replied,  “  I  do  not  think  you  do,  for  here  are  300 
Italians  on  board,  who  are  going  from  the  United 

1  Since  Lieutenant-Colonel  and  Commandant  of  Cadets,  United  States 
Military  Academy. 


558 


D.  L.  Moody  on  Board  the  Spree 


States  to  Italy.  Why  do  yon  not  preach  the  Gospel  to 
them  ?  ” 

The  father  then  ronsed  himself  and  said  with  con¬ 
siderable  spirit :  “  I  would  if  I  could  get  a  chance.” 

I  laughed  and  said,  “  I’ll  get  you  a  chance.” 

I  went  to  the  captain  and  told  him  I  wished  he  would 
give  the  priest  a  chance  to  speak  to  the  Italians. 

He  answered:  “  Yes,  yes,  I’ll  do  so.  I’ll  build  you 
a  throne.” 

The  captain  had  a  platform  constructed,  and  the 
Italians  were  invited  to  attend  the  meeting.  They  all 
came,  men,  women,  and  children,  and  the  father  gave 
them  a  good  sermon  in  Italian.  He  told  them  that  they 
owed  the  opportunity  for  the  service  to  me.  I  then 
asked,  “  Can’t  you  sing?”  One  tall,  bright-eyed  man 
said,  “  Yes,  we  can  sing  the  Litany.” 

The  tall  man  then  began  a  religious  chant  and  all 
the  people,  with  glad  faces,  joined  in  it,  and  I  do  not 
think  I  ever  heard  any  song  or  hymn  more  melodious 
than  what  they  sang.  The  father  was  glad  of  this 
opportunity  and  didn’t  mind  my  sitting  with  him  on 
the  “  throne.”  1 

Mr.  Treat  and  I  visited  every  part  of  Spain  where 
we  could  find  that  Isabella  had  been  from  the  time  of 
her  birth  till  her  death  and  burial.  It  was  an  inter¬ 
esting  journey  and  one  very  helpful  to  me  in  the  work 
I  was  prosecuting.  My  son  James’s  wife  and  child 
were  visiting  her  home  in  Gottingen  and  I  met  them 
at  Bremen  in  order  to  accompany  them  home.  Mr. 
Treat  had  left  me  for  England  while  I  was  en  route  to 
Bremen.  Mrs.  James  Howard  and  her  little  girl  were 
there  on  my  arrival,  and  the  next  day  we  set  out  for 
home  on  the  steamer  Spree .  At  Southampton,  Eng- 


1  See  the  details  of  this  visit  to  Spain  in  my  book, 

559 


“  Isabella  of  Castile/  ’ 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

land,  I  was  delighted  to  see  Mr.  D.  L.  Moody  and  his 
son  Will  Moody  come  on  board.  After  this  accession, 
Adelheid,  my  daughter-in-law,  having  many  friends  on 
the  vessel,  we  had  the  prospect  of  a  happy  voyage. 
On  the  steamer  were  people  of  every  nation,  750  of 
them,  separated  into  first  and  second  cabin,  without 
any  steerage  passengers. 

After  midnight  Friday,  we  were  about  eleven  hun¬ 
dred  miles  on  our  way,  when  the  main  shaft  of  the 
propeller  broke,  sending  two  large  fragments  through 
the  bottom  of  the  steamer.  The  bulkheads  had  not 
been  closed  and  for  a  time  about  half  the  compartments 
speedily  filled  with  water.  Of  course,  the  compart¬ 
ments  were  instantly  shut  off  from  each  other  by  the 
bulkhead  doors  and  the  water  was  pumped  out  from 
every  compartment  except  the  last  two  near  the  stem. 
These  two  could  not  be  secured  without  straining  the 
ship  and  producing  a  great  leakage.  The  second-class 
passengers  had  been  caught  in  their  berths  and  state¬ 
rooms,  and  rushed  to  the  deck  saving  scarcely  any  of 
their  luggage.  At  first  the  electric  lights  were  out 
and  the  gloom  and  terror  that  followed  the  accident 
cannot  easily  be  described;  yet  Captain  Willerode, 
his  crew,  and  all  other  employees  in  the  ship  showed 
no  panic,  but  every  man  kept  his  place  and  did  his 
duty.  My  room  was  near  the  dining-hall  and  my 
daughter-in-law’s  farther  back.  I  had  her  take  mine 
at  once  and  then  went  in  search  of  her  nursemaid, 
Matilda.  As  I  was  passing  through  the  crowd,  Ma¬ 
tilda,  who  knew  no  English,  got  a  glimpse  of  me  and 
seized  my  hand,  which  she  held  with  great  tenacity 
till  we  reached  her  mistress. 

Early  next  morning  I  found  Mr.  Moody  and  his  son 
sitting  on  deck.  Mr.  Moody  was  weakened  by  sick- 

560 


D.  L.  Moody  on  Board  the  Spree 

ness,  but  as  soon  as  he  could  speak  he  said :  “  General, 
let  us  go  down  to  my  stateroom.”  As  we  started  he 
added :  “  Come,  my  son,  come  with  us.”  As  soon  as 
he  had  entered  his  stateroom  lie  knelt  down  by  his 
berth  and  prayed,  saying :  “  0  Lord,  when  Thy  disciples 
were  on  the  sea  and  in  trouble,  Thou  didst  save  them. 
Are  we  not  Thy  disciples'?  Please  smooth  the  waves 
so  that  we  shall  not  be  drowned,  and  please  send  us. 
a  ship.”  His  son  and  myself  followed  Mr.  Moody  in 
prayer,  also  asking  for  God’s  mercy  and  blessing. 
Then  Moody  arose,  sat  on  a  high  stool,  and  began  to 
read  the  Ninety-first  psalm.  He  paused  while  reading 
and  smiling  said :  “  That  psalm  seems  made  for  just 
this  occasion,  doesn’t  it?  ” 

After  this,  with  very  little  delay,  we  went  back  to 
do  whatever  we  could  to  comfort  and  cheer  the  people. 
Mr.  Koop,  whom  I  knew,  had  with  him  his  wife  and 
two  daughters.  Mrs.  Koop  almost  immediately  be¬ 
came  delirious,  but  under  the  doctor’s  care  was  very 
soon  quietly  asleep.  Mr.  Koop  said  to  me :  “  Ho  you 
think  a  man  who  hasn’t  been  doing  his  duty  ought  to 
pray  at  such  a  time  as  this?  It  seems  a  little  ignoble, 
doesn’t  it?  ” 

I  answered :  “  Perhaps  the  trouble  was  permitted, 
so  far  as  you  are  concerned,  to  lead  you  to  pray.” 
Then  I  showed  him,  giving  him  an  instance,  how  men 
have  been  led  to  prayer  through  meeting  with  acci¬ 
dents.  I  had  hardly  finished  when  Mr.  Koop’s  coun¬ 
tenance  was  filled  with  hope.  From  that  time  on  he 
became  the  helper  of  others  who  were  in  need.  There 
were  many  cases  where  people  shed  tears,  some  in 
great  terror  and  some  in  great  distress. 

The  acuteness  of  the  situation  was  shown  when 
during  the  first,  almost  hopeless  condition,  my  daugh- 

561 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

ter-in-law  said  to  me :  “  Father,  I  have  given  up  my 
home  people  and  my  husband,  but  I  do  not  see  how  I 
could  bear  it  if  Hildegard  (then  three  years  old)  should 
cry  as  we  go  down.”  A  French  countess  who  was  in 
perturbation  of  mind  told  me  she  prayed  constantly, 
but  still  she  was  so  afraid  she  could  not  take  off  her 
boots. 

One  elderly  Jew  from  Eussia  was  on  his  knees  most 

of  the  time  weeping.  He  insisted  that  he  was  the 

Jonah  because  he  had  come  awav  from  home  without 

* 

bidding  his  family  adieu.  He  thought  that  if  we 
would  throw  him  overboard  safety  would  surely 
come. 

On  Sunday  morning  I  was  trying  to  encourage  a 
fellow-passenger  who  had  hard  work  to  repress  his 
fear,  when  from  the  next  table  a  member  of  Mr.  Beech¬ 
er’s  old  church  in  Brooklyn  called  out :  “  I  don’t  see 
where  you  get  your  confidence.”  I  put  my  hand  on 
my  breast  and  said :  “  I  do  not  know,  but  it  is  in  there.” 
I  suppose,  accustomed  to  danger  as  I  was,  this  did 
not  disturb  me  as  much  as  it  did  some  others. 

Mr.  Moody  proposed  to  me  that  we  have  a  service, 
as  it  was  Sunday.  He  said:  “You  see  the  captain; 
you  can  do  that  better  than  I  can.” 

I  found  the  captain  in  his  place  in  the  pilot  house. 
Though  suffering  excruciatingly  from  an  attack  of 
cholelithiasis,  he  answered:  “A  Christian  service! 
Oh,  yes,  I  am  that  way  myself.” 

T  went  at  once  and  saw  the  head  steward  and  ar¬ 
ranged  for  a  service  between  ten  and  eleven  o’clock  of 
that  morning  in  the  dining  salon.  Then  I  reported  to 
Mr.  Moody  what  I  had  done.  He  said,  “  Tell  the  peo¬ 
ple.”  I  went  one  way  and  said  that  Mr.  Moody  would 
have  a  service  in  the  dining  salon,  and  Will  Moody 

562 


D.  L.  Moody  on  Board  the  Spree 

the  other  way  and  said  that  General  Howard  would 
have  the  meeting.  At  last  he  and  I  met,  having 
given  the  general  notification.  Before  the  hour  every¬ 
body  came  crowding  into  the  salon.  This  was  filled, 
and  all  the  passages  leading  to  it.  I  think  everybody 
on  the  ship  responded  to  the  invitation,  except,  of 
course,  those  on  duty.  For  a  while,  in  the  imminent 
danger,  everybody  attempted  to  pray.  Mr.  Moody 
stood  at  the  head  of  the  table  and  led  the  reading  and 
the  prayer.  A  good  Catholic  lady  from  South  Amer¬ 
ica,  returning  to  New  York,  led  our  singing,  beginning 
with  “  Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee.”  There  was  singing 
in  English  and  German.  I  led  the  speaking,  using  the 
words :  “  Let  not  your  heart  be  troubled.”  A  German 
officer  followed  me  in  German,  and  I  heard  him  use 
some  words  with  which  I  had  closed :  “  Man’s  extrem¬ 
ity  is  God’s  opportunity.” 

The  rest  of  the  day  we  watched  for  a  steamer,  and 
saw  the  day  close  without  any  substantial  answer  to 
our  petitions.  After  the  accident  a  young  man,  a  sec¬ 
ond-class  passenger,  occupied  one  of  the  berths  in  my 
stateroom,  while  I  slept  under  the  window  with  my 
feet  toward  the  door.  The  electric  light  had  been  re¬ 
vived  and  my  door  was  held  open  a  little  way  by  a 
long  hook.  About  three  o’clock  Monday  morning,  I 
opened  my  eyes  and  saw  Matilda  looking  in  from  the 
hallway  smiling.  She  said  in  plain  English,  for  her 
mistress  had  just  taught  her  the  four  words:  “  The 
ship  is  coming,  Herr  General.”  Indeed  it  was  true. 
The  steamer  Huron,  crossing  from  Canada,  had  seen 
our  signals  of  distress,  and  she  came,  just  in  time,  to 
our  relief.  We  had  drifted  out  of  the  usual  course  of 
ships,  and  to  many  on  board  there  appeared  very  little 
hope  of  our  rescue. 


563 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

By  nine  o’clock  Monday  morning  the  Huron  was 
towing  the  Spree  by  two  strong  cables,  and  we  were 
quietly  dragged  for  eight  days  on  a  smooth  sea  back 
to  Queenstown,  Ireland.  As  soon  as  we  touched  land, 
the  most  of  the  passengers  ran  to  the  nearest  church. 
It  was  of  the  Methodist  persuasion  and  when  the  house 
was  well  filled,  Moody  mounted  the  pulpit  and  preached 
a  sermon  from  the  text,  “  God  is  Love,”  and  we  all 
gave  thanks.  Moody  preceded  me  to  the  United 
States,  going  over  by  another  line.  I  returned  by  the 
Harvel,  a  sister  ship  of  the  Spree.  When  I  arrived, 
I  found  the  newspapers  filled  with  opposition  to 
Moody’s  theory,  which  he  expressed  in  the  brief 
phrase,  “  Prayer  saved  the  ship.”  When  correspond¬ 
ents  met  me  and  asked  me  for  the  facts,  I  said:  “  Mr. 
Moody’s  prayer  had  been,  ‘  Please  send  us  a  ship,  and 
smooth  the  waves  so  that  we  shall  not  be  drowned.’ 
The  ship  Huron  did  come  in  time  to  our  rescue  and  we 
had  a  smooth  sea  for  eight  days  back  to  Queenstown, 
Ireland.  What  we  asked  for  came,  but  whether  our 
Heavenly  Father  performed  a  miracle  to  bring  this 
about  I  do  not  know.  You  ask  for  daily  bread  and 
receive  it,  and  that  is  sufficient.” 

It  was  remarkable  that  only  one  man  perished  on 
the  Spree.  He  jumped  overboard  and  refused  the 
help  offered  him ;  a  German  sailor  said :  “  He  murdered 
his-self.” 

That  homeward  trip  had  hundreds  of  incidents 
peculiar  to  such  a  situation,  but  whatever  our  belief, 
surely  we  were  made  to  feel,  as  Moody  said,  that  “  God 
is  Love.” 

The  long  detention  prevented  our  reaching  home 
till  after  Christmas,  and  in  that  way  I  was  made  to 
overstay  my  two  months’  leave  of  absence.  Under  the 

564 


D.  L.  Moody  on  Board  the  Spree 

circumstances  I  was  forgiven  the  delinquency,  which 
could  not  have  been  prevented. 

Lieutenant  Guy  Howard’s  efficiency  brought  him 
promotion  to  a  captaincy  in  the  quartermaster’s  de¬ 
partment,  and  he  was  sent  not  long  after  to  survey, 
lay  out,  and  build  Fort  Ethan  Allen,  some  four  miles 
from  Burlington,  Vt.  It  is  a  beautiful  post,  well  con¬ 
structed,  and  regarded  in  the  army  as  a  great  honor 
to  its  builder. 

My  retirement  from  the  army  occurred  November 
8,  1904  (my  sixty-fourth  birthday).  At  noon,  the  offi¬ 
cers  of  the  department  staff  very  kindly  gathered  at 
the  headquarters  on  Governor’s  Island,  and  I  took 
leave  of  those  who  had  been  so  closely  associated  with 
me  at  this  my  last  station.  In  the  evening  my  family 
and  I,  accompanied  by  my  late  aids-de-camp,  Captain 
Wm.  W.  Wotherspoon,  Lieutenant  Charles  G.  Treat, 
and  Lieutenant  Godfrey  H.  MacDonald,  attended  a 
farewell  reception  generously  extended  to  me  by  the 
U.  S.  Grant  Post  G.  A.  R.  in  Brooklyn.  After  the 
cordial  greetings  of  old  war  veterans,  a  slight  feeling 
of  homesickness  came  over  me  as  I  looked  on  the  full 
uniforms  of  my  three  young  officers;  I  gave  them  my 
last  order — to  leave  me — bidding  them  an  affectionate 
farewell.  Although  I  had  anticipated  this  retirement, 
still  it  finally  came  like  a  shock,  and  it  took  me  some 
days  to  become  used  to  the  situation,  with  no  one  to 
command. 

On  our  way  to  Portland,  Ore.,  where  we  were  to 
spend  the  winter,  we  stopped  at  Fort  Snelling  to  see 
my  good  friend  Colonel  E.  C.  Mason,  who  had  been 
my  chief  of  staff  during  the  Nez  Perces  Indian  cam¬ 
paign,  1877.  Although  I  protested,  stating  that  I  was 
supposed  now  to  be  retired,  the  Colonel  welcomed  me 

565 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

with  a  military  salute  of  eleven  guns.  He  said  that  I 
would  always  be  his  commander  and  so  gave  me  a  re¬ 
view  of  his  entire  regiment.  In  the  march  past,  com¬ 
manding  a  company,  was  my  former  aid-de-camp,  Cap¬ 
tain  M.  C.  Wilkinson,  who  in  the  Nez  Perces  War  in  the 
battle  of  the  Clearwater,  July  11  and  12,  1877,  had 
under  my  eye  performed  such  gallant  services  in  ac¬ 
tion  that  he  was  brevetted  a  major  on  October  5,  1898. 
He  was  killed  in  leading  an  attack  against  the  Indians 
at  Bear  Island,  Leech  Lake,  Minn. 

While  in  Portland  we  lived  near  our  daughter,  Mrs. 
James  T.  Gray,  and  her  family,  and  also  had  the  com¬ 
panionship  of  my  aid,  Captain  Joseph  A.  Sladen. 
When  I  saw  him  a  clerk  of  the  United  States  Court 
and  a  prominent  leader  in  all  good  works,  it  gave  me  a 
peculiar  satisfaction. 

I  continued  my  writings,  and  while  returning  to 
the  East  filled  lecture  engagements  in  California,  Colo¬ 
rado,  and  elsewhere.  At  Denver  we  visited  my  half 
brother,  Judge  Rodelphus  Howard  Gilmore,  who  is  a 
prominent  lawyer  of  that  city.  In  that  year,  1895,  we 
came  to  Burlington,  Vt.,  where  my  son,  Captain  Guy 
Howard,  continuing  his  work  at  Fort  Ethan  Allen, 
was  likely  to  remain  for  some  years.  We  lived  in  a 
rented  house  for  two  years,  then  built  a  permanent 
home  on  the  ridge  which  overlooks  Lake  Champlain 
and  the  Adirondacks.  We  here  received  word  of  the 
marriage  of  my  fourth  son,  Lieutenant  John  Howard, 
to  Emily  Britton  in  San  Francisco.  John  had  been 
commissioned  a  second  lieutenant,  Nineteenth  United 
States  Infantry,  in  1891.  During  the  Philippine  insur¬ 
rection  he  became  major  of  the  Forty-eighth  United 
States  Volunteer  Infantry.  He  has  seen  continuous 
service  with  three  tours  in  the  Philippines,  and  has 

566 


General  Howard’s  Home,  Burlington,  Vermont. 


D.  L.  Moody  on  Board  the  Spree 

now  reached  the  rank  of  captain  in  the  regular 
army. 

After  extraordinary  efforts  on  the  part  of  General 
Horace  Porter  and  several  other  strong  friends  of  our 
late  General  U.  S.  Grant,  the  monument  erected  to  his 
memory  in  New  York  was  at  last  completed  and  ready 
for  unveiling.  The  procession  was  large,  and  General 
Grenville  M.  Dodge  was  made  the  grand  marshal  for 
the  occasion.  I  was  selected  to  command  the  veteran 
division  and  so  located  as  to  review  all  the  troops  as 
they  passed  on  northward  toward  Grant’s  Tomb.  I 
sat  with  my  staff  for  over  four  hours  reviewing  the 
parade.  My  station  was  in  the  vicinity  of  Seventieth 
Street,  with  my  back  toward  the  river.  There  was 
nothing  very  remarkable  except  the  excessive  coldness 
of  the  weather,  which  could  not,  however,  dampen  the 
ardor  and  enthusiasm  of  the  people.  While  there,  Chief 
Joseph  of  the  Nez  Perces,  who  had  been  my  stalwart 
enemy,  came  along  in  the  column  with  Colonel  W.  F. 
Cody  (Buffalo  Bill).  As  they  moved  past,  Chief  Jo¬ 
seph  smiled  very  happily  and  seemed  to  he  gratified  to 
be  with  the  staff  of  General  Dodge  and  participate  in 
the  parade.  We  were  all  satisfied  with  the  beauty  and 
completeness  of  this  great  ceremonial  in  honor  of  him, 
whom  as  general  we  had  followed  and  trusted  above 
every  other. 

During  1895  we  had  the  first  break  in  our  family, 
then  numbering  seven  children  and  twelve  grandchil¬ 
dren,  or,  when  we  take  in  those  by  marriage,  twelve 
children.  My  daughter  Grace,  Mrs.  Gray,  brought  her 
five  children  from  Portland,  Ore.,  to  Burlington.  Her 
eldest  daughter,  Elizabeth  Howard  Gray,  then  sixteen 
years  old,  who  some  time  before  had  had  scarlet  fever, 
died  at  our  home,  and  was  buried  in  the  beautiful 

567 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

cemetery  on  Lake  Champlain.  She  was  lovely  in  per¬ 
son  and  character. 

It  was  during  that  year  that  I  was  called  to  Cum¬ 
berland  Gap,  Tenn.,  for  a  lecture.  A  large  hotel  with 
some  600  acres  of  land,  called  the  Four  Seasons, 
about  a  mile  and  a  half  beyond  the  village,  had, 
prior  to  my  visit,  failed,  leaving  the  property  unoccu¬ 
pied.  The  little  Harrow  school  at  the  village  was  in 
financial  distress,  owing  to  the  fact  that  its  patrons  no 
longer  assembled  at  the  hotel.  Hon.  Darwin  R.  James, 
of  New  York,  the  Rev.  Fred.  B.  Avery,  of  Ohio,  and  I, 
with  some  others,  sat  one  evening  on  the  Harrow  school 
porch.  “  What  shall  we  do  with  our  school  1  ”  was 
asked.  I  remember  to  have  been  walking  up  and  down 
and  thinking  of  the  situation.  I  stopped  suddenly  and 
remarked :  “  Friends,  if  you  will  make  this  school  a 
larger  enterprise  I  will  take  hold  and  do  what  I  can.” 
Out  of  the  conference  has  grown  the  large  and  thriv¬ 
ing  institution  which  is  chartered  as  “  Lincoln  Me¬ 
morial  University.”  The  first  president  of  the  board 
was  Dr.  Gray,  editor  of  the  Interior ,  of  Chicago.  The 
600  acres  which  embraced  the  Four  Seasons  property 
were  purchased,  but  Dr.  Gray’s  health  and  strength 
soon  failed  him,  and  I  had  from  him  and  others  an  ear¬ 
nest  entreaty  to  take  a  more  active  part  in  the  plant¬ 
ing  and  development  of  the  institution.  I  reluctantly 
consented,  but  began  to  work  with  all  the  strength  I 
could  muster.  I  have  had  associated  with  me  some 
noble  men,  and  the  institution  has  been  steadily  pro¬ 
gressing  until  more  than  500  of  the  youth  of  the 
mountains  are  receiving  excellent  and  systematic 
training.  The  organizing  of  the  institution,  the  rais¬ 
ing  of  funds  for  its  plant,  the  establishment  of  an  en¬ 
dowment,  and  keeping  up  the  running  expenses  have 

568 


D.  L.  Moody  on  Board  the  Spree 

been  for  eleven  years  a  decided  labor  of  love.  The 
continued  success  of  this  enterprise  as  a  last  work 
of  an  active  life  I  greatly  desire  and  earnestly 
pray  for. 

In  1896  was  the  first  presidential  campaign  in 
which  I  participated.  I  had  made  up  my  mind,  as  soon 
as  I  was  retired  from  the  active  list  of  the  army,  that 
I  would  engage  in  political  work  as  an  example  to  my 
children,  and  also  as  I  wished  to  carry  out  my  theory 
as  to  the  importance  of  citizenship.  I  began  by  can¬ 
vassing  Vermont  and  then  Maine,  making  many  ad¬ 
dresses  in  different  parts  of  those  two  States.  Sud¬ 
denly  I  received  a  dispatch  from  my  friend,  General 
R.  A.  Alger,  entreating  me  to  join  his  special  car 
in  Chicago  for  a  political  tour.  There  with  General 
Sickles,  General  Thomas  J.  Stewart,  Corporal  Tan¬ 
ner,  and  a  few  others  I  joined  General  Alger.  We 
were  designated  a  little  later  by  the  opposition  as 
“  The  Wrecks  of  the  Civil  War.”  We  made  a  remark¬ 
able  campaign,  carefully  scheduled  so  as  to  pass  from 
place  to  place  and  give  addresses,  sometimes  from  the 
rear  platform  of  our  car,  but  mostly  from  stands  ar¬ 
ranged  for  us  near  the  railway  line.  We  began  habitu¬ 
ally  about  seven  o’clock  in  the  morning  and  met  au¬ 
diences,  as  a  rule,  every  half  hour  during  the  day,  and 
often  had  meetings  that  lasted  until  eleven  o’clock  at 
night.  We  passed  through  Illinois,  Minnesota,  the 
Dakotas,  Iowa,  Nebraska,  Kansas,  Missouri,  Indiana, 
Ohio,  Kentucky,  and  finished  in  Pennsylvania.  To 
carry  it  through  and  meet  all  the  expenses  of  this  ex¬ 
tensive  tour,  cost  General  Alger  upward  of  $25,000. 
As  we  met  the  old  soldiers,  their  children,  and  their 
grandchildren  in  every  part  of  the  land,  we  received 
a  royal  welcome,  and  I  am  sure  contributed  largely 

569 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

to  the  election  of  our  comrade,  William  McKinley,  to 
the  first  office  in  the  land. 

After  the  Spanish  War  in  1898  was  well  under 
way,  Mr.  D.  L.  Moody,  the  chairman  of  the  Evangelis¬ 
tic  Committee,  selected  Major  D.  W.  Whittle  (my  pro¬ 
vost  marshal  during  the  war)  and  myself  to  go  to  the 
various  camps  of  the  volunteer  soldiers  and  “  witness 
for  the  Master”  as  best  we  could.  We  met  early  in 
May  and  took  counsel  together.  From  the  American 
Tract  Society  we  obtained  important  booklets,  Crom¬ 
well’s  Bible,  and  other  publications  for  distribution. 
The  religious  newspapers,  especially  the  Christian 
Herald ,  aided  us  with  weekly  papers.  From  other 
sources  we  obtained  dailies  in  abundance.  After  we  had 
laid  in  an  ample  supply  for  the  camps  then  existing, 
for  example,  Camp  Alger  in  Virginia,  Camp  Thomas 
at  Chickamauga,  the  encampments  at  Jacksonville  and 
Tampa,  Fla.,  and  Mobile,  Ala.,  we  went  together 
first  to  Camp  Alger.  At  each  camp  we  found  that 
our  young  men  had  already  given  and  pitched  a  large 
tent  called  “  The  Pavilion.”  It  was  well  supplied  with 
tables,  chairs,  and  desks.  Plenty  of  headed  paper  with 
envelopes  was  provided  for  the  soldiers.  Here  was 
piled  up  for  their  use  abundance  of  books  and  booklets. 

A  young  man  well  selected  by  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  some¬ 
times  with  one  or  two  assistants,  was  attending  to  all 
the  wants  of  the  Pavilion.  We  saw  a  large  tank  of 
ice  water  and  noticed  a  column  of  soldiers  waiting  one 
after  another  to  obtain  a  refreshing  drink.  In  the 
early  evening  we  had  an  opportunity  of  addressing  all 
who  could  come  to  the  Pavilion,  bringing  to  the  sol¬ 
diers  our  Christian  message,  and  reminding  them  as 
well  as  we  could  of  their  friends  and  their  homes. 

Twice  we  went  to  Chickamauga,  once  to  each  of  the 

570 


D.  L.  Moody  on  Board  the  Spree 

other  camps,  and  stayed  for  quite  a  length  of  time  at 
Tampa.  My  early  Christian  association  with  the 
churches  of  Tampa  made  the  visit  there  especially  in¬ 
teresting  to  me  and  afforded  me  much  to  talk  about 
in  the  line  of  reminiscence.  Major  Whittle,  not  being 
well,  did  not  go  with  me  throughout  the  Southern  tour. 
After  we  separated  I  had  as  an  associate  a  very  agree¬ 
able  young  man,  William  C.  Howland.  He  and  I  met 
Chaplain  Steele,  United  States  Navy,  at  Key  West. 
Steele  had  secured  a  large  old-fashioned  warehouse 
just  then  unused  by  the  owner.  This  warehouse  was 
made  to  answer  the  purpose  of  the  Pavilion  elsewhere. 
At  Key  West  I  had  my  first  opportunity  to  address 
soldiers  and  sailors  together.  The  story  of  the  Cross 
made  simple  in  its  presentation  interested  them.  After 
that,  we  were  invited  to  go  on  board  vessels  in  the 
harbor,  where  the  naval  officers  seemed  happy  to  meet 
us  and  give  their  men  the  opportunity  to  listen  to  our 
proclamation  of  the  truth  as  we  saw  it.  We  went  on 
down  from  Key  West  to  Guantanimo  and  there  met 
our  fleet  under  the  command  of  Admiral  Sampson. 
He  very  kindly  sent  me  on  a  little  steamer,  the  Vixen, 
commanded  by  Captain  Sharp  (a  nephew  of  General 
Grant),  to  Santiago  de  Cuba.  I  next  passed  after  ar¬ 
rival  to  the  transport  steamer  Comal ,  which  was  fast¬ 
ened  to  the  dock  in  the  inner  harbor.  From  this  ship 
I  had  a  clear  view  of  many  streets  of  Santiago.  Here 
I  saw  crowds  of  Cubans,  wretched,  impoverished,  and 
almost  blind  with  starvation,  working  their  way  to 
get  at  the  food  which  Clara  Barton  had  been  providing 
for  them.  Touching  the  work  of  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Chris¬ 
tian  Commission  I  wrote:  “  We  rejoice  indeed  at  what 
was  done  and  only  regret  that  it  was  so  limited.” 

Mr.  Howland  and  I  came  back  on  the  Yucatan  as 

571 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

far  as  the  Tampa  quarantine  station,  then  we  went  on 
board  the  Seguranga,  where  there  were  at  least  200 
sick  people.  Every  available  place  in  the  social  hall 
held  a  sick  man,  bolstered  by  his  knapsack.  The  ma¬ 
jority  were  afflicted  with  severe  malarial  fever.  It  was 
difficult  to  find  any  relief  from  the  gloom  of  that  ship. 
Of  course,  Howland  and  I  did  what  we  could  to  allevi¬ 
ate  the  situation  all  the  way  from  Tampa  to  New  York 
City.1 

My  son  Guy  Howard  was  sent  early  before  the 
struggle  began  to  Atlanta,  Ga.,  and  controlled  an 
important  supply  station  for  the  army.  When  I  was 
at  Camp  Alger,  he  was  chief  quartermaster  of  the  Sec¬ 
ond  Army  Corps,  then  commanded  by  General  Wil¬ 
liam  M.  Graham.  One  incident  at  that  time  indi¬ 
cated  to  me  the  marked  executive  ability  of  Colonel 
Howard.  Some  great  difficulty  was  had  in  arranging 
and  loading  two  large  sea  transports  at  Newport 
News.  The  Secretary  of  War  (General  Alger)  tele¬ 
graphed  General  Graham :  “  Can’t  you  name  an  officer 
of  the  quartermaster’s  department  who  will  go  to 
Newport  News  and  get  those  vessels  loaded  and  off?  ” 
General  Graham  answered:  “Yes,  I  can.” 

“  Who  is  he?  ” 

“  Colonel  Guy  Howard.” 

“When  can  he  go?” 

“  By  the  next  train.” 

Colonel  Howard  did  go  by  the  next  train,  and  the 
day  after  his  arrival  the  two  vessels  had  all  their 
supplies  and  the  soldiers  on  board  in  good  order,  and 
put  to  sea. 

During  all  the  operations  Colonel  Howard  gave 

1 1  have  given  a  detailed  account  of  all  this  with  other  experiences  in  the 
Spanish  War  in  a  book  entitled  “Fighting  for  Humanity,"  written  the 
game  year. 


572 


D.  L.  Moody  on  Board  the  Spree 

great  satisfaction  for  the  most  effective  service,  so 
that  when  the  reduction  occurred  by  the  mustering  out 
of  the  volunteers  used  in  Cuba,  Porto  Rico,  and  along 
the  coast,  he  was  retained  in  his  department  as  major 
and  soon  sent  to  the  Philippines,  where  he  became  the 
chief  quartermaster  of  General  Lawton’s  division.  In 
Lawton’s  most  important  northward  expedition  he 
was  about  to  depart  from  San  Isidro,  and  he  needed 
his  important  supplies.  My  son  went  down  the  river 
in  a  little  steamer,  the  Oceania ,  and  securing  two  large 
barges,  was  slowly  pulling  them  up  the  crooked  channel 
of  the  Rio  Grande,  when  near  the  mouth  of  the  Rio 
Chico  a  body  of  armed  Filipinos,  hiding  in  the  tall 
grass  some  75  yards  from  the  shore,  suddenly  shot 
nearly  everybody  on  the  launch.  Some  were  killed 
and  others  wounded.  My  son  and  his  messenger  fell 
immediately  to  the  deck.  A  shot  had  passed  through 
Guy’s  right  lung.  He  sprang  to  his  feet  and  cried: 
“  Whatever  happens  to  me,  keep  the  launch  going,” 
then  instantly  fell  and  died. 

Sergeant  Harris,  Second  Infantry,  whom  Colonel 
Howard  had  selected  to  accompany  him,  seized  the  ma¬ 
chine  gun  and  set  it  in  motion,  firing  rapidly ;  others  of 
his  guard  from  the  barges  quickly  began  their  fire, 
while  friendly  Filipino  pilots  steered  the  boat,  after 
two  had  been  killed.  The  attacking  force  was  driven 
off  and  the  barges  were  carried  on  safely  to  their 
destination. 

The  very  same  day,  October  22,  1899,  the  news  was 
telegraphed  to  his  wife  and  family  at  Omaha  and  to 
us  at  Burlington.  This  is  the  heaviest  blow  that  our 
family  has  had.  His  sister  Bessie  in  the  midst  of  her 
tears  said :  “  Father,  he  would  rather  have  died  in  that 
way  than  any  other.” 


573 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

I  do  not  think  I  have  ever  met  with  an  officer  abler 
to  plan  a  campaign  or  more  thoroughly  to  execute  one 
planned  by  another  than  he. 

In  1897  I  had  command  of  the  veterans  during  the 
inauguration  ceremonies  of  McKinley  March  4th. 
Again  in  1901 1  enjoyed  a  double  duty.  In  the  morning 
General  Sickles  and  I  led  the  escort  from  the  White 
House  to  the  Capitol.  This  took  about  two  hours. 
Later  in  the  day  I  had  charge  of  a  division  of  the  vet¬ 
erans  of  both  wars.  When  the  day  was  over  I  found 
that  I  had  been  in  the  saddle  seven  hours.  That  ride, 
which  inaugurated  McKinley  for  the  second  time,  was 
taken  in  my  seventieth  year. 

For  several  years  I  had  kept  up  the  custom  of  rid¬ 
ing  on  horseback.  Accompanied  by  my  friend  Fred¬ 
erick  Chamberlin,  three  times  I  rode  through  the  moun¬ 
tains  of  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  Virginia  about  the 
time  of  the  annual  Commencement  of  our  Lincoln  Me¬ 
morial  University.  We  habitually  made  twenty  miles 
a  day  for  a  week’s  time. 

At  the  next  inauguration,  1905,  I  was  requested  by 
President  Roosevelt  to  perform  a  similar  part  in  com¬ 
manding  the  veterans ;  this  I  gladly  did,  and  was  hon¬ 
ored  by  a  special  review  in  front  of  the  Capitol,  which 
was  given  me  by  Lieutenant  General  Chaffee. 

I  may  remark  here  that  I  participated  in  the  can¬ 
vass  of  1900  for  McKinley,  making  extensive  trips  and 
many  addresses,  mostly  in  the  West,  for  McKinley  and 
Roosevelt. 

In  1904  I  did  the  same  for  Roosevelt  and  Fair¬ 
banks,  going  as  far  as  Colorado,  but  spending  most  of 
my  time  in  New  York  and  Brooklyn.  I  made  a  spe¬ 
cial  point  of  sustaining  Governor  Higgins,  whom  some 
politicians  wished  to  lay  aside  under  false  assumptions. 

574 


Major  General  Howard. 

(From  a  portrait  by  Mrs.  K.  Rogers  Nowell,  1906.) 


D.  L.  Moody  on  Board  the  Spree 

As  he  was  a  good  man,  I  pleaded  his  case  before  the 
people  with  ardor.  He  was  elected;  he  performed  his 
duties  during  his  term  of  office  with  marked  sincerity 
and  ability.  His  death  has  recently  occurred,  and  I 
am  glad  to  see  that  all  parties  now  speak  of  him  with 
esteem  and  praise. 

This  same  year  our  daughter  Bessie  was  married 
in  Burlington,  Vt.,  to  Joseph  Bancroft,  of  Wilmington, 
Del.  Their  little  daughter  Elizabeth  is,  at  this  writ¬ 
ing,  the  youngest  of  the  thirteen  grandchildren. 

Two  years  later  my  youngest  son,  Harry  Stinson 
Howard,  named  for  my  beloved  aid-de-camp,  married, 
also  in  Burlington,  Sue  E.  Hertz,  and  they  now  share 
in  the  Burlington  home.  Harry  has  been  with  me  as 
secretary  since  my  retirement  from  the  army,  and 
has  ably  assisted  me  in  all  my  varied  work.  He  has, 
in  the  meantime,  graduated  from  the  New  York  Law 
School,  and  been  admitted  to  the  Vermont  bar. 

In  addition  to  lecturing  I  have  spoken  on  Sundays 
at  different  churches  and  often  on  other  days  in  be¬ 
half  of  the  Lincoln  Memorial  University.  Mine  has 
been  a  busy  life.  Indeed,  I  have  never  been  able  to 
spend  more  than  a  week,  and  hardly  that,  at  any  wa¬ 
tering-place  or  chosen  spot  for  summer  rest.  Thus  far 
my  rest  has  been  the  rest  of  change. 

It  is  very  gratifying  to  me  that  personal  strength 
has  continued  so  long,  and  that  I  have  been  so  well  re¬ 
ceived  and  kindly  treated  in  every  part  of  the  country. 
Recently  I  went  to  Atlanta,  Ga.,  to  be  present  at  the 
unveiling  of  a  monument  to  General  W.  H.  T.  Walker; 
it  was  erected  on  the  spot  where  he  fell  on  the  Confed¬ 
erate  side  in  the  battle  of  Atlanta.  McPherson’s  mon¬ 
ument  and  his  are  the  same  in  form,  and  about  600 
yards  apart. 


575 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

A  large  body  of  Confederate  veterans  received  me 
with  warmth  and  treated  me  as  kindly  as  if  I  had  be¬ 
longed  to  them.  I  think  that  they  recognize  the  fact 
that  I  have  been  trying  hard  to  sow  the  seeds  of  edu¬ 
cation,  and  help  build  up  the  places  laid  waste  by  war. 

After  many  blessed  years  of  married  life,  Mrs. 
Howard  and  I  reached  the  crowning  point,  the 
fiftieth  anniversary  of  our  wedding,  on  February  14, 
1905.  The  golden  wedding  is  permitted  to  a  com¬ 
parative  few,  so  we  were  grateful  to  Him  who  had 
sustained  us  through  our  eventful  life,  that  we  might 
celebrate  the  occasion  together  with  so  many  of  our 
family  around  us.  We  held  a  reception  in  New  York, 
to  which  old  friends  came  in  the  afternoon;  and 
thirty-four — brothers,  sisters,  children,  grandchildren, 
and  cousins — dined  together,  all  recording  their  names 
in  the  old  family  Bible — a  wedding  gift  from  Mrs. 
Howard’s  mother  in  1855. 

Amid  the  rejoicings  of  the  happy  event  we  missed 
the  familiar  faces  of  those  who  had  preceded  us  to 
the  Heavenly  Home,  and  my  brother  Charles  was  the 
only  one  present  who  had  stood  with  us  fifty  years  be¬ 
fore,  when  our  life’s  achievements  were  still  in  the 
future. 

Comrades  and  companions  of  service: 

It  was  a  good  work  you  did  in  the  great  Civil  War. 
Without  you  and  those  soldiers  and  sailors  who  have 
already  passed  to  the  other  side  of  the  dark  river,  the 
Union  could  not  have  been  preserved  and  the  incubus 
of  human  slavery  would  not  have  been  removed. 

I  hope  you  will  not  in  these  later  days  allow  a  spirit 
of  unrest  or  discontent  to  mar  your  peace  of  mind. 
There  is  no  adequate  reward,  I  am  aware,  to  the  in- 

576 


D.  L.  Moody  on  Board  the  Spree 

dividual  patriot  for  his  share  in  the  great  achievement, 
but  there  is  a  priceless  blessing  which  comes  into  his 
heart  in  the  consciousness  that  he  bore  his  part  man¬ 
fully  in  the  salvation  and  purification  of  the  Union. 

Pessimism  will  find  flaws  in  our  present  national 
fabric — plenty  of  problems  to  solve.  Your  children, 
fired  by  your  noble  example  of  patriotic  fervor  and 
sacrifice,  will  attend  to  the  flaws  and  the  solution  of 
problems. 

Our  Union,  as  I  understand  it,  when  perfected  in  all 
its  parts  is  worthy  of  our  love.  I  know  of  no  gov¬ 
ernment  on  the  whole  earth  so  near  an  ideal  republic 
as  ours.  I  often  think  of  how  an  equilateral  triangle 
exemplifies  our  threefold  system — the  Congress,  the 
Executive,  and  the  Judiciary;  each  side  of  equal  inde¬ 
pendence,  joined  solidly  together,  and  yet  each  acting 
separately  to  perform  its  functions,  wonderful  and 
complete.  That  triangle  indicates  firmness  of  struc¬ 
ture  and  strength.  It  is  the  people’s  method  of  gov¬ 
erning  themselves.  By  a  written  constitution  our 
Congress,  our  Executive,  and  our  Courts,  all  three 
created  by  the  people,  limit  and  square  their  modes  of 
action.  May  those  who  come  after  us  have  the  wisdom 
to  preserve  and  defend  our  nation  thus  constituted. 

It  would  be  suicidal  to  take  from  the  States  the 
power  essential  to  their  life.  As  for  the  territories — 
the  simple  territorial  system  is  surely  the  best,  espe¬ 
cially  when  some  life  has  been  given  it  by  the  foster¬ 
ing  care  of  the  nation,  particularly,  as  in  the  Philip¬ 
pines,  in  an  education  which  is  absolutely  necessary 
to  development.  Every  danger  of  revolution,  riot,  or 
anarchy  is  lessened  by  this  simple  system,  which  has 
worked  well  hitherto. 

It  appears  to  me  that  little  would  be  gained  by  sun- 

577 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

dering  any  portion  of  onr  domain  from  the  nation. 
Indeed,  I  would  not  advocate  it  anywhere  except  where 
a  plain  promise  of  independence  lias  been  given. 

It  is  a  fitting  close  to  my  life  story  to  lift  up  my 
heart  in  thanksgiving  to  my  Heavenly  Father  for  the 
mercies  and  blessings  which  he  has  unceasingly  show¬ 
ered  upon  me  and  mine.  It  is  fifty  years  this  spring 
since  my  conversion — when  in  Tampa,  Fla.,  I  began  to 
have  a  sense  of  the  presence  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  I 
then  took  the  Old  and  New  Testament  story  of  Christ 
as  giving  me  the  Messiah  of  promise.  To  me  He  was 
and  is  the  manifestation  of  the  Infinite  One.  And  in 
His  name  I  have  prayed  and  hoped  and  trusted.  His 
precept — Love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart  and 
thy  neighbor  as  thyself — expresses  the  aim  and  aspi¬ 
ration  of  my  soul. 

True,  I  have  often  violated  my  own  conviction  of 
right,  yet  my  religion  has  been  a  great  help  and  com¬ 
fort  to  me.  To  be  a  member  of  a  Christian  church, 
as  I  have  always  been  since  that  Florida  experience, 
to  participate  in  its  worship  from  Sabbath  to  Sabbath, 
and  to  contribute  to  its  activities,  I  have  counted  as 
duties — yes,  far  more,  as  the  most  satisfying  of  privi¬ 
leges. 

The  people  of  God — those  who  hold  and  have  held 
tenaciously  and  sincerely  to  the  Lord  God  as  revealed 
to  us  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  both  before  and  since 
the  appearance  of  our  beloved  Master  upon  the  earth — 
constitute  one  people — one  great  church. 

For  any  good  man  to  stand  aloof  and  not  identify 
himself  with  any  branch  in  a  thorough  and  practical 
way  surely  would  not  be  best  for  him  nor  for  his  fel¬ 
low  men.  By  separate  personal  action,  however  in¬ 
trinsically  good  one  might  be,  the  whole  world  could 

578 


D.  L.  Moody  on  Board  the  Spree 

not  be  reached  with  the  good  news,  and  brought  into 
unison  with  the  Spirit  of  Christ. 

In  closest  union  with  and  loval  devotion  to  our 
Great  Master,  we  shall  be  able  to  help  fulfill  His  re¬ 
quirement — to  go  into  all  the  world,  to  teach  all  people, 
and  win  them  to  Him  by  proper  words  seasoned  with 
genuine  love. 

My  part  in  the  world’s  work  will  soon  be  finished. 
If  I  know  my  own  strongest  desire,  it  is  that  all  peo¬ 
ple,  and  especially  all  children,  may  receive  into  their 
minds  and  hearts  that  teaching  which  shall  make  for 
their  present  and  future  good,  which  embraces  attain¬ 
able  knowledge  and  loving-kindness  whose  pattern  is 
in  the  life  of  Jesus. 


579 


APPENDIX 


COLONEL  STANNARD  AT  HARPER'S  FERRY 
By  General  T.  S.  Peck 

Monday  morning,  September  15,  1862,  Colonel 
Dixon  S.  Miles  was  commanding  our  forces  at  Har¬ 
per’s  Ferry.  He  was  obliged  to  surrender.  At  the 
time  tlie  white  flag  went  up  Colonel  George  J.  Stan- 
nard  with  his  regiment,  the  Ninth  Vermont,  was  on 
Bolivar  Heights.  Seeing  the  flag,  Stannard  was  deeply 
chagrined  and  tried  for  two  hours  to  get  back  and 
break  through  the  cordon  of  hostile  troops  formed 
around  our  unfortunate  garrison.  In  his  last  effort 
he  moved  down  to  the  lower  road,  which  runs  parallel 
to  the  Shenandoah  River,  and  was  headed  for  the 
pontoon  bridge  that  crosses  the  Potomac  from  the 
village  of  Harper's  Ferry.  At  the  foot  of  this  rocky 
road  Stannard  called  for  forty  volunteers  as  a  “  for¬ 
lorn  hope."  He  put  himself  at  its  head  and  started, 
expecting  the  regiment  to  follow,  rapidly  toward  the 
bridge.  But  halfway  down  he  met  the  head  of  A.  P. 
Hill’s  corps.  Instantly  we  saw  two  of  Hill’s  aids  con¬ 
fronting  Colonel  Stannard.  Though  firm,  they  were 
gentle  in  their  manner  and  informed  the  colonel  that 
the  garrison  had  surrendered,  and  insisted  that  he  take 
his  regiment  at  once  to  the  camping  ground  and  stack 
arms.  This  occurred  two  hours  after  the  other  troops 

580 


Appendix 

had  given  up.  Being  near  him,  I  looked  np  and  saw 
that  Stannard’ s  face  was  covered  with  tears,  and  I 
was  sure  that  he  was  still  meditating  some  way  to 
keep  his  regiment  from  marching  back  to  that  hill. 
He  began  to  retire,  but  his  movements  were  slow  and 
evidently  reluctant.  One  Confederate  officer  told  Stan- 
nard  that  if  he  did  not  hasten  his  march  they  would 
not  dilly-dally  with  him  longer,  but  would  fire  grape 
and  canister  into  the  command. 

While  the  regiment  was  ascending  the  rocky  road 
the  men  were  breaking  up  their  muskets  and  the  drum¬ 
mers  throwing  their  drums  into  the  deep  gorge  below ; 
officers  were  also  breaking  their  swords  and  color- 
bearers  destroying  their  flags. 

When  at  last  the  regiment  arrived  we  were  ordered 
to  stack  arms;  the  Confederates  laughed  at  our  at¬ 
tempts,  and  while  they  were  evidently  angry  to  see 
the  muskets  so  injured  they  cheered  Colonel  Stannard 
and  his  soldiers  for  their  bravery. 

The  next  step  was  for  Colonel  Stannard  to  sign 
the  parole  for  all  his  men  not  to  take  up  arms  again 
until  regularly  exchanged.  The  colonel  on  the  spot 
declined  to  do  this,  stating  that  he  would  give  his  own 
parole,  but  could  not  be  responsible  for  the  men  in 
his  regiment.  He  created  delay  by  one  contrivance 
and  another  till  late  in  the  afternoon,  hoping  that 
relief  would  come  from  McClellan. 

At  last  General  Hill  told  Stannard  that  if  he  did 
not  sign  at  once  the  men  of  his  regiment  would  be 
marched  to  Richmond  and  held  as  prisoners  of  war. 
After  that  threat  Colonel  Stannard  signed  the  parole. 


581 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

GENERAL  STANNARD  AT  FORT  HARRISON 
By  General  T.  S.  Peck 

On  September  29, 1864,  General  Stannard  assaulted 
and  took  Fort  Harrison  with  his  division.  The  fort 
was  located  on  the  north  side  of  the  James  River, 
near  Chapin’s  Bluff,  four  miles  from  Richmond.  At 
noon  on  September  30tli,  General  Lee  tried  to  re¬ 
capture  Fort  Harrison;  his  attacking  column,  some 
7,000  strong,  was  formed  in  three  successive  lines. 
The  Confederates  made  three  different  attacks  within 
an  hour,  and  did  not  withdraw  till  after  at  least  2,000 
were  killed  and  wounded.  Those  who  survived  from 
the  first  Confederate  line  came  into  Fort  Harrison, 
and  one  of  the  first  arrivals  was  the  colonel  of  an 
Alabama  regiment,  who,  with  blood  streaming  down 
his  face,  looked  up  at  General  Stannard  and  said: 
“  You  had  better  come  out  of  this  fort,  for  General 
Lee  himself  is  over  there  ”  (pointing  to  the  Confed¬ 
erate  works),  “  and  he  says  he  will  retake  this  fort” 
(Harrison)  “  if  it  takes  half  of  his  army.”  Stannard’s 
reply  was :  “  I  shall  be  happy  to  see  General  Lee 
whenever  he  chooses  to  call.” 

During  this  short  but  terrific  engagement  Stannard 
stood,  walked,  or  ran  around  the  top  of  the  parapet, 
hat  in  one  hand  and  sword  in  the  other,  encouraging 
by  voice  and  motions  the  men  of  his  division.  He  was 
seen  not  only  by  men  of  the  Union  army,  not  far  away, 
but  by  the  Confederates. 

Within  Fort  Harrison  were  log  cabins  used  dur¬ 
ing  their  occupation  by  the  Confederates  as  quarters. 
These  cabins  took  fire,  and  between  the  excessive  heat 
of  the  burning  buildings  and  the  severe  fighting  the 
men  of  Stannard’s  division  were  in  a  most  hazardous 

582 


Appendix 

position.  There  was  great  danger  of  their  being  pre¬ 
vented  in  their  defense  by  the  hot  fire  from  the  build¬ 
ings.  The  wounded  and  hospital  men,  however,  tore 
down  the  cabins  and  extinguished  the  fires. 

At  the  close  of  the  engagement  proper  the  sharp¬ 
shooters  on  both  sides  for  a  time  continued  their  car¬ 
nival  ;  then  it  was  that  General  Stannard  was  shot  in 
his  right  arm,  which  was  afterwards  amputated.  His 
heroic  gallantry  and  superb  fighting  enabled  the  Union 
troops  to  hold  this  most  important  fortification,  and 
for  that  action  he  received  the  brevet  of  Major  General 
of  Volunteers. 

Stannard,  with  the  Second  Vermont  Brigade,  at 
Gettysburg,  as  everybody  knows,  did  heroic  work  and 
helped  largely  to  change  a  doubtful  battle  into  victory. 
He  was  a  hard  fighter  and  a  manly  man,  with  noblest 
instincts. 

GENERAL  HOOKER'S  CONGRATULATORY  ORDER 

Headquarters  Army  of  the  Potomac, 

Camp  near  Falmouth,  Virginia,  April  30,  1863. 
General  Orders ,  No.  47. 

It  is  with  heartfelt  satisfaction  the  Commanding 
General  announces  to  the  Army  that  the  operations 
of  the  last  three  days  have  determined  that  our  enemy 
must  either  ingloriously  fly,  or  come  out  from  behind 
his  defenses  and  give  us  battle  on  our  own  ground, 
where  certain  destruction  awaits  him. 

The  operations  of  the  Fifth,  Eleventh,  and  Twelfth 
Corps  have  been  a  succession  of  splendid  achieve¬ 
ments.  By  command  of  Major  General  Hooker: 

S.  Williams, 

Assistant  Adjutant  General. 

583 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

ACTS  OF  CONGRESS  ESTABLISHING  THE  FREED- 

MEN'S  BUREAU 

Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Repre¬ 
sentatives  of  the  United  States  of  America  in  Congress 
assembled ,  That  there  is  hereby  established  in  the  War 
Department,  to  continue  during  the  present  war  of 
rebellion,  and  for  one  year  thereafter,  a  Bureau  of 
Refugees,  Freedmen  and  Abandoned  Lands,  to  which 
shall  be  committed,  as  hereinafter  provided,  the  super¬ 
vision  and  management  of  all  abandoned  lands,  and 
the  control  of  all  subjects  relating  to  refugees  and 
freedmen  from  rebel  States ,  or  from  any  district  of 
country  within  the  territory  embraced  in  the  opera¬ 
tions  of  the  army,  under  such  rides  and  regulations  as 
may  be  prescribed  by  the  head  of  the  bureau  and  ap¬ 
proved  by  the  President.  The  said  bureau  shall  be 
under  the  management  and  control  of  a  Commissioner 
to  be  appointed  by  the  President,  by  and  with  the 
advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate. 

Act  approved  March  3,  1865. 

Sec.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted ,  That  where  ac¬ 
counts  are  rendered  for  expenditures  for  refugees  or 
freedmen  under  the  approval  and  sanction  of  the 
proper  officers,  and  which  shall  have  been  proper  and 
necessary,  but  cannot  be  settled  for  want  of  specific 
appropriations,  the  same  may  be  paid  out  of  the  fund 
for  the  relief  of  refugees  and  freedmen,  on  the  ap¬ 
proval  of  the  Commissioner  of  the  Bureau  of  Refugees 
and  Freedmen. 

Act  approved  June  15,  1866. 

•  •  •  •  • 

Sec.  2.  And  be  it  further  enacted ,  That  the  super¬ 
vision  and  care  of  said  bureau  shall  extend  to  all  loyal 
refugees  and  freedmen,  so  far  as  the  same  shall  be 

584 


Appendix 

necessary  to  enable  them  as  speedily  as  practicable  to 
become  self-supporting  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
and  to  aid  them  in  making  the  freedom  conferred  by 
proclamation  of  the  commander-in-chief,  by  emancipa¬ 
tion  under  the  laws  of  States,  and  by  constitutional 
amendment,  available  and  beneficial  to  the  public. 

Sec.  12.  And  be  it  further  enacted ,  That  the  Com¬ 
missioner  shall  have  power  to  seize,  hold,  use,  lease, 
or  sell  all  buildings  and  tenements,  and  any  lands 
appertaining  to  the  same,  or  otherwise,  formerly  held 
under  color  of  title  by  the  late  so-called  Confederate 
States,  and  not  heretofore  disposed  of  by  the  United 
States,  and  any  buildings  or  lands  held  in  trust  for 
the  same  by  any  person  or  persons,  and  to  use  the 
same  or  appropriate  the  proceeds  derived  therefrom 
to  the  education  of  the  freed  people;  and  whenever  the 
bureau  shall  cease  to  exist,  such  of  said  so-called  Con¬ 
federate  States  as  shall  have  made  provision  for  the 
education  of  their  citizens,  without  distinction  of  color, 
shall  receive  the  sum  remaining  unexpended  of  such 
sales  or  rentals,  which  shall  be  distributed  among  said 
States  for  educational  purposes  in  proportion  to  their 
population. 

Sec.  13.  And  be  it  further  enacted ,  That  the  Com¬ 
missioner  of  this  bureau  shall  at  all  times  cooperate 
with  private  benevolent  associations  of  citizens  in  aid 
of  freedmen,  and  with  agents  and  teachers  duly  ac¬ 
credited  and  appointed  by  them,  and  shall  hire  or 
provide  by  lease  buildings  for  purposes  of  education 
whenever  such  association  shall,  without  cost  to  the 
government,  provide  suitable  teachers  and  means  of 
instruction;  and  he  shall  furnish  such  protection  as 
may  be  required  for  the  safe  conduct  of  such  schools. 

Act  of  July  16,  1866. 


585 


Autobiography  of  Gen.  O.  O.  Howard 

Sec.  3.  And  be  it  further  enacted ,  That  unexpended 
balances  in  the  hands  of  the  Commissioner,  not  re¬ 
quired  otherwise  for  the  due  execution  of  the  law,  may 
be,  in  the  discretion  of  the  Commissioner,  applied  for 
the  education  of  freedmen  and  refugees,  subject  to 
the  provisions  of  laws  applicable  thereto. 

Act  of  June  24,  1868. 


OFFICERS  AND  DIRECTORS  OF  LINCOLN 
MEMORIAL  UNIVERSITY 

Acknowledgment  is  made  to  the  following  list  of 
officers  and  directors  for  their  hearty  cooperation  in 

the  work  of  the  Lincoln  Memorial  University  at  Cum- 

%/ 

berland  Gap,  Tenn. : 


BOARD  OF  DIRECTORS 

William  L.  Stooksbury,  Ph.D.,  President. 

Col.  Robert  F.  Patterson,  Vice-President, 

Cumberland  Gap,  Tenn. 

Hon.  Darwin  R.  James,  Treasurer,  New  York. 

Chas.  F.  Eager,  Secretary  and  Asst.  Treas., 

Cumberland  Gap,  Tenn. 
Eugene  P.  Fairchild,  Esq.,  Financial  Sec’y, 

Rutherford,  N.  J. 

Rev.  Fred.  Burt  Avery,  D.D.,  Cleveland,  Ohio. 

Col.  E.  H.  Haskell,  Boston,  Mass. 

Benjamin  H.  Herbert,  Chicago,  Ill. 

John  F.  Spence,  LL.D.,  Knoxville,  Tenn. 

Edgar  O.  Achorn,  Esq.,  Boston,  Mass. 

A.  Lincoln  Seligman,  New  York. 

Macaulay  Arthur,  M.D.,  Middlesboro,  Ivy. 

586 


Appendix 

W.  H.  Fulkerson,  Jerseyville,  Ill. 

Herman  Y.  Hughes,  Esq.,  Tazewell,  Term. 
Hon.  Henry  R.  Gibson,  Knoxville,  Tenn. 
Rev.  Isaac  S.  Anderson,  Rose  Hill,  Va. 
Franklin  E.  Nettleton,  Esq.,  Scranton,  Pa. 
B.  F.  Young,  M.D.,  Knoxville,  Tenn. 

Millard  F.  Overton,  Cumberland  Gap,  Tenn. 


NEW  YORK  ADVISORY  COMMITTEE 

Rev.  W.  S.  Richardson, 
Lawrence  W.  Sanders. 


NEW  YORK  FINANCE  COMMITTEE 

(Investment  of  Endowment.) 

Hon.  D.  R.  James, 

Hon.  Stewart  L.  Woodford, 

J.  H.  Washburn. 


587 


INDEX 


INDEX 


1  indicates  Vol.  I;  II  indicates  Vol.  II;  hyphen  (-)  indicates  all  pages  inclusive  be. 
tween  figures  given. 


Abercrombie,  John  J.,  I,  233,  235. 
Abbott,  Lyman,  II,  269. 

Achron,  E.  0.,  II,  586. 

Adairsville,  Battle  of,  I,  521-527. 
Adams,  John  Quincy,  II,  282,  321. 
Aiken,  Hugh  K.,  II,  133. 

Alaska,  Trip  to,  II,  468-484. 

Alden,  B.  R.,  I,  51,  53,  54. 
Alexander,  A.  J.,  II,  8. 

Alexander,  E.  P.,  I,  95. 

Alger,  Russell  A.,  II,  569,  572. 
Allatoona,  Battle  of,  II,  56-63. 
Alley,  John  W.,  I,  44. 

Alvord,  J.  W.,  II,  271. 

Ames,  Adelbert,  I,  349,  383,  3S6, 
424,  429. 

Ames,  John,  I,  7. 

Amick,  Myron  J.,  II,  83,  139. 
Anderson,  George  B.,  I,  300. 
Anderson,  George  W.,  II,  91. 
Anderson,  I.  S.,  II,  587. 

Anderson,  R.  H.,  I,  275,  2S9,  331, 
351,  356,  358,  359,  367,  369. 
Anderson,  Robert,  I,  96. 

Andrew,  John  A.,  I,  124. 

Andrews,  George  L.,  I,  341. 
Andrews,  Sidney,  II,  440. 

Antietam,  Battle  of,  I,  286-306. 
Appleton  &  Co.,  D.,  II,  556. 

Archer,  James  J.,  I,  408,  415. 
Ardagh,  Lieutenant  Colonel,  II, 
503. 

Armesy,  Thomas  D.,  II,  54. 
Armistead,  L.  A.,  I,  244,  435. 
Armitage,  Rev.,  1,  70. 


Armstrong,  F.  C.,  II,  63. 
Armstrong,  S.  C.,  II,  347,  408,  415. 
Arnell,  Samuel  M.,  II,  437. 

Arthur,  Macaulay,  II,  586. 

Ashby,  Henry  M.,  I,  173. 

Askew,  Frank,  I,  570. 

Asmussen,  Charles  W.,  I,  372,  457, 
458,  462. 

Atlanta,  Battle  of,  II,  3-15. 
Atlanta,  Campaign,  I,  499-512. 
Atwood,  A.  J.,  I,  327,  344. 

Austin,  Horace  B.,  II,  211. 

Avery,  Fred  B.,  II,  568,  586. 

Avery,  Isaac  W.,  I,  430. 
Averysboro,  Battle  of,  II,  134-142. 

Bailey,  Desire,  I,  12. 

Bailey,  Rowland,  I,  12. 

Baird,  Absalom,  I,  478,  479,  530, 
567,  581;  II,  241,  242,  283,  287, 
302. 

Baker,  E.  D.,  I,  174,  175,  267. 
Baldwin,  E.  H.,  II,  506,  508,  510. 
Baldwin,  Mrs.,  II,  377. 

Ballard,  Judge,  II,  345. 

Balloch,  George  W.,  I,  187,  437,  472; 

II,  113,  216,  256,  263,  267,  397. 
Ball’s  Bluff,  I,  174. 

Bancroft,  C.  F.  P.,  II,  192,  272. 
Bancroft,  Elizabeth,  II,  575. 
Bancroft,  Joseph,  II,  575. 

Banks,  N.  P.,  I,  172,  199,  201,  203, 
256,  258,  259;  II,  186,  216. 
Barker,  E.  G.,  II,  380. 

Barksdale,  William,  I,  173. 


Index 


Barlow,  Francis  C.,  I,  187,  243,  247, 
301, 349,357,365, 366,369,372,376, 
377,  408,  411,  413,  414,  416,  419. 

Barnes,  J.  K.,  II,  258. 

Barnett,  Charles  R.,  II,  556. 

Barnett,  Mrs.  Chas.  R.,  II,  556. 

Barrows,  C.  D.,  II,  547. 

Barry,  William  F.,  II,  212. 

Bartlett,  Wm.  H.  C.,  I,  55,  56. 

Barton,  Clara,  II,  571. 

Bate,  William  B.,  I,  558,  559,  614; 
II,  29. 

Baxter,  Henry,  I,  323. 

Bayard,  George  D.,  I,  260,  311,  312. 

Beauregard,  P.  G.  T.,  I,  146,  147, 
151,  155,  156,  163. 

Beddoes,  Mr.,  II,  530. 

Bee,  Barnard  E.,  I,  151,  155,  156. 

Beebe,  Wm.  N.,  Jr.,  II,  101. 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  II,  330,  429, 
430,  562. 

Beecher,  James  C.,  II,  385. 

Belknap,  W.  W.,  II,  10,  65,  267, 
268,  449,  450. 

Bendix,  John  E.,  I,  140. 

Benham,  Henry  W.,  I,  352. 

Bennett,  E.  R.,  II,  156. 

Benton,  Alexander,  II,  142. 

Bentonville,  Battle  of,  II,  143-159. 

Berdan,  Hiram,  I,  368. 

Bernsdorff.  Count,  II,  534. 

Berry,  Hiram  G.,  I,  143,  373,  374. 

Birney,  David  B.,  I,  234,  244,  269, 
336,  368,  425,  426. 

Bismarck,  von,  O.  E.  L.,  I,  34. 

Blaine,  James  G.,  I,  68-70, 106,  1 12- 
116,  118,  141,  537. 

Blair,  F.  P.,  I,  139,  557,  579;  II, 
4-8,  11,  17,  19,  21,  23-26,  32,  34, 
37,  40,  46,  78,  79,  96,  98,  99,  104, 
109,  111,  140,  142,  144,  145,  148, 
150,  206. 

Blair,  Montgomery,  I,  139. 

Blake,  John  W.,  I,  584,  613.  615. 


Blanding,  J.  B.,  II,  289. 

Blavatsky,  Madame,  II,  524, 536,537. 
Blenker,  Louis,  I,  172,  196. 

Bliss,  J.  S.,  I,  522. 

Blodgett,  Andrew  T.,  II,  38. 
Blucher,  von,  G.  L.,  II,  24. 
Blumenbach,  Friedrich,  II,  535,  536. 
Bodemeyer,  von,  Adelheid,  II,  532, 
544. 

Bodemeyer,  von,  Gertrude,  II,  532, 
534. 

Bodemeyer,  von,  Hedwig,  II,  532, 
534. 

Bodemeyer,  von,  Mrs.,  II,  531. 
Boggs,  William  R.,  I,  48,  63,  64,  72. 
Bond,  Hugh,  II,  318. 

Bonham,  M.  L.,  I,  147,  151. 

Boody,  Alvan  H.,  I,  28,  31. 

Borel,  Thomas,  I,  125. 

Botume,  Elizabeth,  II,  99. 
Boughton,  Horace,  I,  491. 

Bowdoin  College,  I,  23,  28,  30,  37 
42,  43,  123. 

Bowen,  Marcellus,  II,  507. 

Bowie,  Ogden,  II,  285. 

Bowlegs,  Billy,  Chief,  I,  84. 
Bowman,  A.  H.,  I,  100. 

Bovnton,  C.  B.,  II,  396,  426,  429- 
431,  433-435. 

Boynton,  H.  V.,  II,  426,  433,  435. 
Bradley,  Luther  P.,  I,  613-615. 
Bragg,  Braxton,  I,  456,  471,  477, 
479,  481,  484-486,  488,  490;  II, 
80,  131,  146,  151. 

Branch,  Mr.,  I,  87. 

Breckinridge,  Joseph  C.,  I,  4S4,  485, 
488. 

Brewerton,  Henry,  I,  46,  50. 
Brewster,  A.,  II,  395. 

Bridgham,  Thomas,  I,  10. 

Britton,  Emily,  II,  566. 

Brock,  Mr.,  I,  496,  497. 

Brodhead,  J.  M.,  II,  356. 

Brooke,  Fort,  Fla.,  I,  73,  77,  88. 


Index 


Brooke,  John  R.,  I,  187,  244,  246, 
247,  300,  317. 

Brooks,  James,  II,  200. 

Brooks,  Phillips,  II,  558. 

Brown,  Harvey,  I,  85,  86. 

Brown,  J.  M.,  II,  216,  267. 

Brown,  John,  I,  153;  II,  170. 

Brown,  Levi  R.,  I,  49. 

Brown,  Lieutenant  Colonel,  I,  369. 

Brown,  Orlando,  II,  215,  217,  232, 
233,  283,  284,  347. 

Buck,  R.  P.,  I,  125,  128;  II,  545. 

Buckingham,  Maurice,  I,  313. 

Buell,  D.  IL,  I,  135. 

Buell,  Don  Carlos,  I,  188, 456;  II,  169. 

Buell,  G.  P.,  I,  588,  603. 

Buford,  John,  I,  260,  398-401,  403, 
406,  407,  412,  413,  415,  416,  418, 
423. 

Bullfinch,  John,  I,  25. 

Bull  Run,  Battle  of,  I,  146-165,  168, 
169,  187. 

Bull  Run,  Second  Battle  of,  1,  251- 
270. 

Bumstead,  Horace,  II,  403. 

Burbank,  Sidney,  II,  345. 

Burnham,  A.  H.,  I,  99. 

Burnham,  Jonas  P.,  I,  18. 

Burns,  W.  W.,  1, 75, 239,267,297,345. 

Burnside,  A.  E.,  I,  138,  154,  155, 
158,  189,  190,  259,  277,  279,  280, 
283,  284,  287,  289,  294,  303-305, 
311,  313-322,  328,  329,  332,  333, 
345,  347,  477,  492;  II,  181. 

Burt,  Edwin,  I,  115,  119. 

Buscho,  Captain,  II,  530. 

Bush,  W.  W.,  I,  173. 

Bushbeck,  Adolph,  I,  350,  354,  364, 
373,  481,  482,  484. 

Butler,  B.  F.,  I,  103,  131,  139,  189, 
201;  II,  137,  168,  170,  171,  174, 
175,  186,  265. 

Butterfield,  Daniel,  I,  138,  333,  444, 
467,  516,  572,  615;  II,  553. 


Butts,  Samuel  A.,  H,  386. 

Buzzard  Roost  Gap,  II,  504-506. 

Cade,  Mr.,  II,  139. 

Caldwell,  John  C.,  I,  267,  300,  301, 
309,  342. 

Callender,  Franklin  D.,  I,  67. 
Cameron,  Simon,  I,  139;  II,  170. 
Canby,  Edw.  R.  S.,  II,  188,  216. 
Candy,  Charles,  I,  545. 

Cannon,  LeGrand  B.,  II,  175. 
Carlin,  Wm.  P.,  II,  146-148,  344. 
Carnot,  Monsieur,  II,  542. 

Carolinas,  March  through,  II,  101- 
159. 

Carroll,  S.  S.,  I,  101,  102,  137,  430. 
Casey,  Silas,  I,  170,  172,  177,  179, 
182,  183,  190,  198,  211,  220,  229, 
230,  232-234,  236. 

Cassville,  Battle  of,  I,  528-538. 
Catlett,  Lottie,  I,  448. 

Catlett,  Mr.,  I,  448,  449. 
Chamberlin,  Frederick,  II,  574. 
Chambreau,  Ned.,  II,  471,  472. 
Chancellor,  Melzie,  I,  363. 
Chancellorsville,  Battle  of,  I,  347- 
377. 

Chase,  George  N.,  II,  549,  550. 
Chase,  Salmon  P.,  I,  139,  201;  II, 
184,  185,  318,  320,  419. 
Chattahoochee  River,  II,  589. 
Chattanooga,  Battle  of,  I,  471-498. 
Chauvet,  Adolph,  II,  526,  527,  530, 
555. 

Cheatham,  B.  F.,  I,  559,  560,  598, 
613;  II,  7,  11,  12,  14,  57,  131,  141. 
Cheraw,  Skirmishes  at,  II,  134-142. 
Cheves,  Dr.,  II,  90. 

Childs,  Frederick  L.,  I,  69. 

Church,  A.  E.,  I,  90,  91,  100. 
Church,  Andrew  J.,  I,  119. 

Clare,  William,  II,  48. 

Clark,  A.  Judson,  I,  367. 

Clark,  Mary  E.,  II,  516. 


593 


Index 


Clarke,  Francis  N.,  I,  196. 

Clarke,  William  T.,  II,  143. 
Cleburne,  Patrick  R.,  I,  483,  488; 
II,  7,  8,  29. 

Cleveland,  Parker,  I,  28,  34. 

Cliff,  Tony,  II,  386. 

Closson,  Henry  W.,  I,  57. 

Cobb,  Deacon,  I,  14. 

Cobb,  Howell,  I,  27S,  384;  II,  48. 
Cobham,  George  A.,  I,  620. 

Coburn,  John,  I,  615. 

Cockerell,  J.  R.,  I,  565,  566. 

Cody,  W.  F.,  II,  567. 

Coke,  Phillip  St,  G.,  I,  147. 

Colburn,  N.  B.,  I,  209. 

Colby,  Abram,  II,  384. 

Cole,  A.  S.,  II,  216. 

Cole,  John  A.,  II,  420. 

Columbia,  Taking  of,  II,  1 17-133. 
Colyer,  Vincent,  II,  176. 

Comstock,  Cyrus  B.,  I,  354,  365, 
376. 

Comte  de  Paris,  I,  377,  401. 

Coney,  Samuel,  I,  69. 

Conway,  Thomas  W.,  II,  186,  188, 
215-217,  283,  302. 

Conyngham,  David  B.,  I,  532. 

Cook,  B.  C.,  II,  395,  397. 

Cooke,  Jay,  I,  139. 

Cooper,  William,  II,  379. 

Corse,  J.  M.,  I,  535,  536;  II,  18,  38, 
46,  58-63,  66,  70,  81,  82,  103. 
Cosby,  George  B.,  I,  70. 

Coster,  Charles  R.,  I,  417. 

Couch,  D.  N.,  I,  172,  220,  229,  230, 
233-239,  272,  289,  298,  306,  311, 
324,  337,  344,  345,  349,  356,  359, 
362,  367,  398;  II,  181. 

Courcillon,  de,  Eugene,  I,  65. 
Courtney,  Mr.,  I,  238. 

Cox,  Jacob  D.,  1,  272,  280,  303,  304, 
511,  565,  585,  592,  609;  II,  13. 
Cox,  R.  S.,  II,  260,  261. 

Cox,  Samuel  S.,  II,  200. 


Craig,  Henry  K.,  I,  66,  67. 
Craighill,  William  P.,  I,  281. 
Cravath,  E.  M.,  II,  407. 

Crawford,  Samuel  W.,  I,  295. 
Crook,  George,  1,  302-305. 

Cross,  Edward  A.,  I,  185,  243,  247, 
301,  342. 

Cruft,  Charles,  I,  476. 

Cudlipp,  William,  II,  465-467. 
Curtin,  A.  G.,  I,  138. 

Curtis,  N.  M.,  II,  347. 

Custer,  George  A.,  II,  475. 

Cutler,  Lysander,  I,  407,  415. 
Cuyler,  John  M.,  I,  181,  253. 

Dahlgren,  John  A.,  II,  85,  91,  92,  96. 
Daily,  Dennis,  I,  497. 

Dallas,  Battle  of,  I,  550-570. 
Dalton,  Battle  of,  I,  499-512. 

Dana,  N.  J.  T.,  I,  239,  292,  296,  297. 
Danby,  Miss,  II,  99. 

Daniels,  Mary  E.,  II,  556. 

Darling,  John  A.,  II,  546. 

Davidson,  J.  W.,  I,  218. 

Davis,  B.  F.,  I,  277. 

Davis,  Henry  Winter,  II,  321. 
Davis,  James,  II,  381. 

Davis,  Jeff.  C.,  I,  476,  497,  520,  528, 
542,  557-560,  581,  584,  585;  II, 
29,  39,  43,  51,  52,  57,  146,  290, 
345,  463. 

Davis,  Jefferson,  I,  99,  203,  488;  II, 
48,  93. 

Davis,  Joseph  R.,  I,  408,  415. 

Day,  H.  Howard,  II,  327. 

Dayton,  L.  M.,  II,  62. 

Deady,  M.  P.,  II,  473. 

Dean,  Stephen  H.,  I,  23. 

DeGress,  Francis,  II,  13,  82,  90 
119. 

Dehon,  Arthur,  I,  335. 

Delafield,  Richard,  I,  100. 

Delano,  Columbus,  II,  445,  466. 
Dennison,  William,  II,  227. 


Index 


Denver,  J.  W.,  I,  175. 

Dessaur,  F.,  I,  377. 

Devens,  Charles,  I,  233,  328,  349, 
354,  366,  368,  370,  371,  375,  376. 

Devereux,  J.  H.,  I,  450,  452. 

Devin,  Thomas  C.,  I,  406,  408. 

Diaz,  Porfirio,  II,  557. 

Dickinson,  Joseph,  I,  373. 

Dilger,  Hubert,  I,  364,  372,  413. 

Dodge,  C.  M.,  I,  557-559,  597,  598, 
602,  611;  II,  4-6,  8,  13,  15,  17- 
19,  21,  23-28,  32,  567. 

Dodge,  Theodore  A.,  I,  377. 

Dole,  George,  I,  371. 

Doubleday,  Abner,  I,  263,  283,  290, 
292,  333,  337,  350,  407,  409,  413- 
417,  424,  43S. 

Douglas,  M.,  I,  293. 

Douglass,  Frederick,  II,  317,  321 

Dred  Scott  Case,  II,  278. 

Drexel,  Harjes  &  Co.,  II,  526. 

Dufferin,  Earl  and  Lady,  II,  509. 

Duncan,  William,  II,  75,  76,  83- 
85,  92,  97,  123,  132,  137-139. 

Dunlap,  John,  II,  378,  379. 

Dunnell,  Mark  IT,  I,  143. 

Duryea,  Abram,  I,  140. 

Dwight,  Henry  Otis,  II,  511. 

Eager,  C.  F.,  588. 

Early,  Jubal,  I,  147,  160,  163,  260, 
332,  358,  390,  391,  400,  416,  428, 
429. 

Easton,  L.  C.,  II,  96,  97. 

Eaton,  A.  B.,  II,  256,  257. 

Eaton,  James  D.,  II,  474. 

Eaton,  John,  II,  179,  215,  225,  232, 
251. 

Edward,  Prince  of  Wales,  I,  98,  99. 

Edwards,  L.  A.,  II,  295. 

Eeles,  Cushing,  II,  483. 

Eliot,  Thomas  D.,  II,  198-201,  204, 
282. 

Elliot,  W.  L.,  II,  56. 


Ellsworth,  E.  Elmer,  I,  104. 

Elvans,  J.  R.,  II,  419. 

Elzey,  Arnold,  I,  163. 

Eskiminzin,  Chief,  II,  548,  551. 
Estes,  L.  G.,  II,  35. 

Etowah,  Crossing  of  the,  II,  534- 
540. 

Europe,  Trip  to,  II,  493-512. 
Evans,  J.  R.,  II,  318,  319. 

Evans,  N.  George,  II,  147,  154-156, 
173. 

Everett,  Carroll  S.,  I,  38. 

Ewell,  Richard  S.,  I,  261,  262,  264, 
3S6-388,  390-392,  400,  404,  416, 
417,  420,  421,  426. 

Ewing,  Hugh,  I,  302. 

Ewing,  Rev.,  II,  502. 

Ewing,  William,  I,  147. 

Ezra  Church,  Battle  of,  II,  16-26. 

Fagan,  Andrew,  I,  238. 

Failing,  Henry,  II,  462,  468. 
Fairbanks,  Charles  W.,  II,  574. 
Fairchild,  Edward  II.,  II,  406. 
Fairchild,  E.  P.,  II,  5S6. 

Fairchild,  Lucius,  I,  415. 

Fair  Oaks,  Battle  of,  I,  227-250. 
Farnsworth,  E.  J.,  I,  434. 

Farragut,  D.  G.,  I,  281. 

Fayetteville,  Ga.,  II,  134-142. 

Fee,  John  G.,  II,  404,  406. 

Fenton,  Reuben  E.,  I,  138. 

Ferrero,  Edward,  I,  344. 

Ferris,  Isaac,  II,  316. 

Ferry,  Governor,  II,  480. 

Fessenden,  William  Pitt,  II,  185. 
Field,  George  B.,  II,  187. 

Field,  Kate,  II,  519. 

Finnemore,  Sam.,  I,  16. 

Fisk,  A.  P.,  I,  251,  252. 

Fisk,  Clinton  B.,  II,  215,  250,  289, 
290,  327,  407. 

Fitz,  Mr.,  II,  299. 

Fitzgerald,  Louis,  II,  551. 


595 


Index 


Flagler,  H.  M.,  II,  554. 

Flanders,  E.  B.,  I,  190. 

Foote,  A.  H.,  I,  205. 

Foote,  Solomon,  II,  321. 

Foraker,  Joseph  B.,  II,  144. 

Force,  M.  F.,  II,  11,  109,  110. 

Ford,  Thomas  H.,  I,  276. 

Forrest,  N.  B.,  II,  28,  30,  46,  375, 
381. 

Foster,  Henry,  I,  23. 

Foster,  JohnG.,  11,91,92,94,96,335. 
Fowler,  William,  II,  216,  230,  293. 
Francis,  Thomas,  I,  13. 

Frank,  John  D.,  I,  196,  243,  343. 
Franklin,  James,  II,  379. 

Franklin,  William  B.,  I,  148,  149, 
154,  172,  216,  217,  224-227,  267, 
272,  277,  278,  288,  289,  298,  300- 
302,  311,  312,  317,  322,  326,  328- 
330,  332,  333,  337,  345,  347,  382. 
Frazier,  Garrison,  II,  190. 

Frederick,  Caesar,  II,  386. 
Fredericksburg,  Battle  of,  I,  327- 
336. 

Freedman’s  Aid  Societies,  II,  194- 
205. 

American  Missionary  Associa¬ 
tion,  II,  195. 

American  Tract  Society,  II, 
195. 

Christian  Commission,  II,  195. 
Sanitary  Commission,  II,  195. 
Freedmen’s  Bureau: 

Abandoned  Lands,  II,  228-244. 
Act,  II,  194-205. 

Acts  for  Education,  II,  309-330. 
Appropriations  by  Congress,  II, 
331-349. 

Barry  Farm,  II,  402-422. 

Court  of  Inquiry,  II,  445-456. 
Courts,  II,  245-262. 

Early  Finances,  II,  263-276. 
Educational  Institutions,  II, 
402-422. 


Freedmen’s  Bureau — Continued 
Educational  W'ork  Increased, 
II,  331-349. 

Famine  Relief,  II,  350-373. 
Home  Colony,  II,  185. 
Legislation,  II,  277-292. 
Opposition  to,  II,  423-444. 
Organization,  II,  206-228. 
Orphans,  II,  245-262. 

President  Johnson’s  Opposi¬ 
tion,  II,  293-308. 

President  Johnson’s  Recon¬ 
struction,  II,  277-292. 
Schools  Started,  II,  263-276. 
Soldiers’  Bounties,  II,  350-373. 
Summary  of  Work  in  1866,  II, 
293-308. 

Summary  of  Work  in  1867,  II, 
331-349. 

Summary,  II,  350-373. 
Fremont,  John  C.,  I,  201,  256,  257; 
II,  167,  168. 

French  Army  Maneuvers,  II,  539- 
542. 

French,  J.  W.,  I,  91,  99,  100. 
French,  S.  G.,  II,  56,  59,  60. 
French,  W.  H.,  I,  183,  186,  197,  222, 
238,  244-246,  248,  296,  299,  300, 
302,  338,  340,  341,  360,  363,  393, 
398. 

Frisbee,  Henry  N.,  II,  557. 

Frissell,  H.  B.,  II,  408. 

Frost,  L.  S.,  II,  378. 

Fry,  J.  B.,  I,  90,  101,  158. 

Frye,  William  P.,  I,  38. 

Fulkerson,  W.  H.,  II,  587. 

Fuller,  J.  W.,  II,  4,  18. 

Fuller,  Melville,  I,  39. 

Fullerton,  J.  S.,  I,  522,  530;  II,  216, 
241,  297. 

Gamble,  William,  I,  406. 

Gardner,  Asa  Bird,  II,  450. 

Garland,  Samuel,  I,  280. 


Index 


Garnett,  H.  H.,  II,  317,  320,  321. 
Garnett,  Robert  S.,  I,  54,  435,  439. 
Garrard,  Kenner,  I,  520,  528,  542, 
579,  590,  592,  594,  595;  II,  7,  27, 
28. 

Geary,  J.  W.,  I,  430,  432,  433,  461, 
465-469,  476,  494,  516,  544,  545, 
616-618;  II,  94. 

Gebhart,  Mr.,  II,  536. 

George,  George  W.,  I,  11,  12. 
George,  King  of  Greece,  II,  514. 
Geronimo,  Chief,  II,  551. 

Getty,  George  W.,  I,  345;  II,  450. 
Gettysburg,  Battle  of,  I,  397-447. 
Gettysburg,  Campaign  of,  I,  378- 
396. 

Gibbon,  John,  I,  101,  283,  284,  293, 
333,  336,  356,  436,  444. 

Gibson,  H.  R.,  II,  587. 

Gidding,  Joshua  R.,  II,  321. 
Gilbreth,  F.  W.,  I,  403,  537,  556; 

II,  23,  216. 

Gile,  G.  W.,  II,  411. 

Gillem,  A.  C.,  II,  340,  341. 

Gillen,  P.  H.,  II,  384. 

Gilman,  Frank  G.,  I,  537,  562. 
Gilmore,  Eliza  Otis,  I,  17-29,  37, 
40,  41,  49,  59,  61,  122,  549,  550. 
Gilmore,  John,  I,  16,  21,  24;  II,  45. 
Gilmore,  Quincy  A.,  II,  131,  178. 
Gilmore,  Rodelphus  H.,  II,  566. 
Gilsa,  von,  Leopold,  I,  349,  364,  371, 
372,  429. 

Gladding,  R.  H.,  II,  383. 

Goff,  Nathan,  II,  54. 

Goldsboro,  L.  M.,  I,  204. 

Goldsmith,  Monsieur,  II,  528. 
Goodwin,  Daniel  R.,  I,  33. 

Gordan,  Charles  G.,  II,  494,  503. 
Gorgas,  Josiah,  I,  71. 

Gorman,  Willis  A.,  I,  238,  292,  296, 
297. 

Graham,  Thomas  J.,  I,  178. 
Graham,  Mrs.  Thos.  J.,  I,  178. 


Graham,  William  M.,  II,  572. 
Granger,  Gordon,  I,  478,  490,  492, 
493,  499. 

Grant,  Gabriel,  I,  248-250. 

Grant,  Ulysses  S.,  I,  192,  205,  256, 
326,  453,  460,  471-477,  479,  484, 
487,  488,  490,  498;  II,  38,  51,  65, 
69,  154-159,  163,  178-180,  203, 
207,  225,  227,  284,  297,  320,  361, 
381,  429,  445-447,  450-452,  479- 
4S1,  567,  571. 

Grant,  Mrs.  U.  S.,  II,  481. 

Gray,  Elizabeth  Howard,  II,  567. 
Gray,  James  T.,  II,  482. 

Gray,  Mrs.  James  T.,  II,  566,  567. 
Gray,  William  Cunningham,  II,  568. 
Gray,  W.  II.,  II,  482. 

Greble,  Clara,  II,  527,  530,  538. 
Greble,  Edwin,  I,  58. 

Greble,  Edwin  St.  J.,  I,  141;  II,  549, 
550. 

Greble,  John  T.,  I,  58,  140. 

Greeley,  Horace,  II,  316. 

Green,  Charles,  II,  94. 

Green,  Mr.,  I,  449. 

Green,  O.  D.,  II,  549. 

Greene,  Francis,  II,  129. 

Greene,  George  S.,  I,  294,  295,  297, 
299,  426-428,  430,  432,  469. 
Greener,  Richard  T.,  II,  486. 

Gregg,  David  B.,  I,  434. 

Gregory,  C.  H.,  II,  348. 

Gregory,  E.  M.,  II,  217,  218. 
Gresham,  W.  Q.,  I,  609,  611;  II,  11. 
Griffin,  Charles,  II,  342,  343. 
Griffith,  James  J.,  I,  442,  443. 
Griswoldville,  Battle  of,  II,  71-75. 
Grose,  William,  I,  572,  581. 
Grosvenor,  Prof.,  II,  512. 

Hale,  John  P.,  I,  386. 

Haley,  William  D.,  I,  119. 

Hall,  Daniel,  I,  386,  409,  411-413. 
Hall,  George  A.,  II,  445. 


597 


Index 


Hall,  Norman  J.,  I,  322-324,  342, 
436. 

Hall,  R.  M.,  II,  399,  401. 

Hall,  Sarah,  I,  37. 

Hall,  William,  II,  9. 

Hall,  William,  II,  386. 

Halleck,  H.  W.,  I,  189,  256,  257, 
260,  266,  267,  273,  308,  313,  315, 
319,  379,  382,  384,  389,  390,  392, 
393,  450,  452,  490;  II,  42,  49,  51, 
158,  167,  169,  173,  206. 

Halloway,  Laura  C.,  II,  524,  536. 
Halpin,  Artist,  II,  128. 

Hamilton,  Schuyler,  I,  172. 

Hamlin,  Cyrus,  II,  511. 

Hamlin,  Hannibal,  I,  446. 
Hammond,  E.  P.,  II,  469. 
Hammond,  John  F.,  I,  105,  249. 
Hampson,  J.  B.,  I,  553. 

Hampton,  Wade,  I,  155,  239;  II, 
118,  120,  137,  141,  145,  146,  149, 

151. 

Hancock,  W.  S.,  I,  217,  221,  222, 
299-301,  338,  341,  359-363,  365, 
381,  418,  422,  425,  426,  429,  432, 
444,  545. 

Hardaway,  B.  F.,  I,  369. 

Hardee,  Anna,  II,  152. 

Hardee,  Willie,  II,  152. 

Hardee,  William  J.,  I,  92,  101,  485, 
518,  528,  533,  534,  540,  542,  543, 
556,  558-560,  565-568,  574,  575, 
579,  598,  604,  612,  619;  II,  7,  8, 
11,  14,  21,  36-38,  40-42,  48,  82, 
92-94,  131,  136,  137,  141,  151, 

152,  189. 

Hardie,  James  A.,  I,  332,  337,  394, 
Harker,  C.  G.,  I,  518,  538,  566,  568, 
582-584,  586-588. 

Harmon,  Oscar  F.,  I,  585. 

Harney,  W.  S.,  I,  73-76,  80. 

Harris,  Berry,  II,  386. 

Harris,  Ira,  I,  72,  138. 

Harris,  Isham  G.,  II,  48. 


Harris,  Mrs.  John,  II,  517,  519. 

Harris,  Sergeant  Wm.  D.,  II,  573. 

Harrison,  Benjamin,  I,  517,  609, 
615. 

Harrow,  William,  I,  436,  591;  II, 
13,  19,  20,  24,  36,  39. 

Hartsuff,  George  L.,  I,  295. 

Ilascall,  Milo  S.,  I,  586,  609;  II,  12. 

Haskell,  E.  H.,  II,  586. 

Hatch,  John  P.,  I,  258,  282,  283. 

Hatton,  Robert,  I,  240. 

Hawkins,  Dexter,  I,  128. 

Hawkins,  Rush  C.,  I,  325,  328. 

Hayes,  Rutherford  B.,  II,  482,  485. 

Hays,  II.  T.,  I,  293. 

Hays,  William,  I,  436,  438. 

Hazard,  John  G.,  I,  342,  343. 

Hazen,  William  B.,  I,  458,  465,  466, 
553;  II,  36,  38,  39,  87-97,  109, 
110,  144,  148. 

Hazzard,  George  W.,  I,  79,  83,  197, 
198,  243,  435. 

Hazzard,  Mrs.  George  W.,  I,  79. 

Heath,  William  S.,  I,  161. 

Hecker,  Frederick,  I,  468. 

Heckman,  John  P.,  I,  476. 

Heintzelman,  S.  P.,  I,  142,  144,  146, 
149,  152,  153,  156,  160,  161,  172, 
216,  217,  218,  220,  227,  230,  234, 
236,  244,  262,  264,  311,  312,  390. 

Herbert,  B.  H.,  II,  586. 

Hertz,  Sue  E.,  II,  575. 

Hess,  Frederick,  I,  517. 

Heth,  Henry,  I,  400,  406,  408. 

Higgins,  Frank  W.,  II,  574. 

Hill,  A.  P.,  I,  263,  304,  305,  332, 
334,  335,  380,  385,  388,  400,  403, 
404,  407,  421,  429,  580,  581. 

Hill,  D.  H.,  I,  141,  231,  232,  235, 
275,  279-281,  284,  287,  290,  293, 
294,  297,  299,  332. 

Hill,  Elias,  II,  387. 

Ilillhouse,  John,  I,  67. 

Hillhouse,  Mrs.  John,  I,  67. 


Index 


Hipp,  Charles,  II,  22,  23. 

Hiscock,  Rev.,  II,  316. 

Hitchcock,  Henry,  II,  159. 

Hitchcock,  Roswell  G.,  I,  128. 

Hodder,  Mr.,  II,  543. 

Hoffman,  Ernest  F.,  I,  365,  376, 
491. 

Holabird,  S.  B.,  I,  101. 

Holmes,  Freeland  S.,  I,  37. 

Holmes,  William  R.,  I,  151. 

Hood,  J.  B.,  I,  240,  287,  290,  294, 
332,  426,  510,  518,  520,  528,  529, 
532-534,  539,  542,  543,  546,  549, 
572,  575,  578,  598,  604,  605,  607, 
609,  612;  II,  7,  11,  14,  16-18,  21, 
26,  28,  29,  34,  41,  47,  48,  50,  52, 
55,  57,  63-66,  69,  93,  151. 

Hooker,  Joseph,  I,  172,  192,  220, 
221,  230,  235,  236,  242,  248,  262, 
264,  265,  268,  272,  277,  2S1-284, 
289,  290,  292-295,  302,  303,  311, 
317,  318,  322,  326,  329,  333,  342, 
343,  347,  348,  350,  352-354,  356- 
362,  365-369,  373-376,  379,  381- 
395,  397,  398,  450,  452,  458- 
461,  465,  467,  469-471,  476,  480, 
483-485,  488,  489,  494,  495,  516- 
518,  523,  528-531,  542,  544-550, 
560,  561,  564,  566,  571,  573-577, 
581,  586,  592-595,  606,  618;  II, 
16,  583. 

Hornburger,  Tom,  II,  387. 

Horner,  C.  W.,  II,  216,  259,  295. 

Hovey,  A.  P.,  I,  518. 

Howard,  Capt.,  I,  526. 

Howard,  Bessie,  II,  555,  573,  575. 

Howard,  C.  H.,  I,  13,  113,  119,  161, 
187,  214,  215,  246,  248,  249,  251, 
252,  298,  344,  386,  414,  416,  442, 
443,  455,  457,  458,  472,  497,  515, 
537,  556;  II,  24,  45,  78,  79,  285, 
348,  396,  397,  549,  576. 

Howard,  Chancey  Otis,  II,  546. 

Howard,  Eliza  Otis,  I,  4-16. 


Howard,  Grace  Ellen,  1,86,96;  11,46. 

Howard,  Guy,  I,  69;  II,  475.  476, 
493,  538,  539,  565,  572,  573. 

Howard,  Mrs.  Guy,  II,  538,  556,  573, 

Howard,  Harry  S.,  II,  555,  556,  575. 

Howard,  Helen,  II,  493. 

Howard,  Hildegard,  II,  562. 

Howard,  James  W.,  II,  494,  495, 
501,  514. 

Howard,  Mrs.  James  W.,  II,  559-561. 

Howard,  Jesse,  I,  7. 

Howard,  John,  Aid  of  Miles  Stand- 
ish,  I,  7. 

Howard,  John,  Lieut.,  II,  566. 

Howard,  John,  Philanthropist,  II, 
543. 

Howard,  Mrs.  O.  O.,  I,  66,  67,  70, 
95,  96,  107;  II,  477,  545,  546,  550, 
555,  576. 

Howard,  Otis  Wool  worth,  II,  493. 

Howard,  Rowland  B.  (brother),  I, 
41,  71,  81,  119,  390,  443;  II,  555. 

Howard,  Rowland  B.  (father),  I, 
4,  11. 

Howard,  Seth,  I,  3,  4,  7,  20. 

Howard,  Stillman,  I,  16. 

Howard  University,  II,  390-401. 

Howard  University,  President  of, 
II,  452-455. 

Howe,  Albion  P.,  I,  382,  383. 

Howland,  William  C.,  II,  571,  572. 

Hubbard,  George  H.,  I,  472. 

Hubbard,  Thomas  H.,  I,  43. 

Huger,  Benjamin,  I,  231. 

Hughes,  H.  Y.,  II,  587. 

Humphreys,  Andrew  A.,  I,  342,  343, 
425,  449. 

Humphreys,  Richard,  II,  394. 

Hunt,  Henry  J.,  I,  320,  323,  348, 
352,  381,  422,  425,  435. 

Hunter,  David,  I,  145,  149,  152-^ 
154,  157,  158,  181,  201;  II,  168. 

Hurlbut,  Stephen  A.,  II,  188,  216. 

Hutchinson  Family,  I,  201. 


Index 


Indians,  in  the  Northwest,  II,  474— 
484. 

Ingalls,  Rufus,  II,  479. 

Irwin,  William  H.,  I,  299,  300. 

Iverson,  Alfred,  I,  416;  II,  55. 

Jackson,  C.  Feger,  I,  335. 

Jackson,  Huntington  W.,  I,  522. 

Jackson,  J.  W.,  I,  104. 

Jackson,  Thos.  J.  (Stonewall),  I, 
151,  156,  199,  200,  258-265,  268, 
269,  275,  276,  290,  293,  294,  312, 
331,  332,  337,  350,  351,  358,  367- 
370,  374,  375,  386,  426,  485;  II, 
108. 

Jackson,  William  H.,  I,  540,  541, 
579,  598;  II,  21,  37. 

James,  Darwin  R.,  II,  568,586. 

James,  Horace,  II,  176. 

Jameson,  Charles  D.,  I,  134. 

Jeffords,  Thomas,  II,  446. 

Jenkins,  A.  G.,  I,  469. 

Jewett,  John  N.,  I,  38,  39. 

Johnson,  Andrew,  I,  349;  II,  220, 
224,  225,  227,  235,  237,  244,  250, 
271,  277,  279,  282,  283,  297,  333, 
340,  374,  423. 

Johnson,  Edward,  I,  391,  400,  426- 
428,  431. 

Johnson,  Edward  (negro  lad),  I,  12. 

Johnson,  R.  W.,  I,  551-554. 

Johnston,  Albert  Sydney,  I,  204. 

Johnston,  Joseph  E.,  I,  62,  151,  155- 
157,  173,  181,  196,  202,  203,  216, 
222,  225,  226,  230,  231,  234,  493- 
495,  498,  502,  503,  507-510,  516, 
520,  521,  523,  525,  528-531,  533, 
534,  540,  541,  543,  550,  551,  553, 
559,  561-564,  567,  568,  570,  574, 
577,  578-580,  586,  589,  592,  594, 
596,  598,  600,  603-605;  II,  136, 
140-143,  145-148,  150-158,  163, 
309,  554. 

Jones,  D.  R.,  I,  147,  294,  302,  304. 


Jones,  John  M.,  I,  50. 

Jones,  J.  R.,  I,  290. 

Jones,  P.  H.,  I,  617. 

Jones,  Samuel,  I,  96. 

Jones,  W.  S.,  II,  12,  23. 

Jonesboro,  Battle  of,  II,  27-40. 
Jordan,  Miss,  II,  377. 

Joseph,  Chief,  II,  475,  567. 

Judah,  Henry  M.,  I,  511,  513. 

Kearney,  Phil.,  I,  221 , 234—236, 242, 
244,  251,  262-264,  268,  269. 
Keitly,  Mr.,  II,  537. 

Kellogg,  Sanford  C.,  I,  354-355. 
Kemper,  James  L.,  I,  435. 

Kenesaw,  Battle  of,  I,  571-588. 
Kent,  Prentiss  J.,  I,  238. 

Ketchum,  A.  P.,  II,  240,  241. 
Ketchum,  Edgar,  II,  421,  422. 
Keyes,  Erasmus  D.,  I,  172,  211,  216, 
220,  227,  229-231,  235,  236. 
Kiddoo,  J.  B.,  II,  291. 

Kilburn,  Charles  L.,  I,  80,  88. 
Kilpatrick,  Judson,  I,  445;  II,  28, 
29,  31-34,  36,  37,  40,  51,  71,  72, 
75,  76,  78,  86,  87,  114,  115,  130, 
140,  141,  149,  154,  156. 

Kimball,  Nathan,  I,  339,  340,  613, 
615. 

King,  Adam  E.,  II,  137. 

King,  John  H.,  I,  590,  591,  593,  594. 
King,  Rufus,  I,  172,  263,  264. 
Kingsley,  Canon,  II,  500. 

Kingston,  Battle  of,  I,  528-539. 

Kip,  Lawrence,  I,  186. 

Kirby,  Edmund,  I,  158,  214,  238. 
Kirby,  Isaac  M.,  I,  568,  569;  II,  106. 
Kirkland,  Mr.,  II,  152. 

Knapp,  Hannah,  I,  10. 

Knapp,  Rufus,  I,  10. 

Kniffin,  G.  C.,  I,  506. 

Knipe,  Joseph  F.,  I,  618. 

Knox,  Mr.,  I,  327. 

Kolb’s  Farm,  Battle  of,  I,  571-588. 


600 


Index 


Koop,  Mr.  and  Mrs.,  II,  561. 

Krzyzanowski,  Wladimlr,  I,  364, 
373,  429,  430. 

Kuhn,  John  H.,  II,  14. 

Ku-Klux-Klan,  II,  374-389. 

Kuropatkin,  Alexi  N.,  II,  539. 

Ladd  &  Tilton,  II,  468. 

Laidley,  Theo.  T.  S.,  I,  63. 

Lakeman,  Moses,  I,  136. 

Lambert,  Lewis  J.,  II,  300,  301. 

Lampley,  Harris  D.,  II,  10. 

Langston,  John  M.,  II,  317,  341. 

Lansing,  Mr.,  I,  65,  66. 

Lansing,  Mrs.,  I,  65. 

Lathrop,  D.  B.,  I,  218. 

Law,  E.  M.,  I,  421. 

Lawrence,  Arthur,  II,  531. 

Lawton,  A.  R.,  I,  290. 

Lawton,  H.  W.,  II,  573. 

Lazelle,  Henry  M.,  I,  49. 

Lee,  C.  C.,  I,  97. 

Lee,  Fitzhugh,  I,  102,  370. 

Lee,  Mr.,  I,  503. 

Lee,  Robert  E.,  I,  54,  96,  102,  203, 
259-261,  265,  272,  275,  278,  286, 
290,  304,  305,  308,  312,  317,  318, 
321,  330,  331,  351,  352,  357,  365- 
369,  376,  380-383,  385,  387,  388, 
392,  395,  397-401,  403,  407,  413, 
416,  419-421,  430,  432,  434,  435, 
440,  445,  492,  498,  580;  II,  124, 
153,  154,  163,  309, 582. 

Lee,  Robert  M.,  I,  245,  248. 

Lee,  S.  D.,  I,  85;  II,  21,  22,  25,  36, 
41,  57,  64,  120,  131,  141,  151,  152. 

Lee,  S.  P.,  I,  443. 

Lee,  Wellesley,  II,  387. 

Lee,  W.  H.  F.,  I,  358. 

Leech,  Susie,  II,  530. 

Leech,  William  A.,  II,  527. 

Leech,  William  A.,  Mrs.,  II,  527. 


Lemon,  Mr.,  II,  494. 

Lewis,  J.  R.,  II,  290. 

Lightburn,  Joseph  A.  J.,  II,  14. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  I,  102,  104,  135, 
137,  139,  176,  180,  182,  188,  193, 
196,  200,  202,  209,  256,  271,  309, 
310,  312,  349,  350,  379,  385,  452- 
454,  492;  II,  42,  94,  155,  156,  159, 
168,  169,  180,  183,  190,  197,  201, 
205,  207,  319,  321,  325. 

Lincoln  Memorial  University,  II, 
568,  569,  583. 

Lindsley,  Rev.,  II,  468,  471. 

Livermore,  D.  S.,  II,  187. 

Lloyd,  Howard,  II,  544. 

Lockwood,  Henry  H.,  I,  390. 

Lockwood,  L.  C.,  I,  128;  II,  175. 

Logan,  John  A.,  I,  557-559,  592, 
611;  II,  4,  5,  8,  9,  13,  16,  17,  19, 
21,  22,  24-26,  32,  34,  36-38,  46, 
98,  99,  104,  109,  122,  131,  135, 
139,  142,  144,  145,  148,  206,  211. 

Logie,  William  K.,  I,  620. 

Longstreet,  James,  I,  147,  221,  231, 
235,  241,  259-262,  266,  282,  284, 
287,  306,  318,  331,  332,  351,  380, 
383,  388,  392,  399,  400,  403,  404, 
416,  421,  422,  425,  427,  434,  435, 
458,  463,  466,  470,  477,  492. 

Loomis,  L.  L.,  I,  80,  81,  84,  87. 

Loring,  William  W.,  I,  574,  578} 
579,  616. 

Lothrop,  Warren,  I,  23,  24,  50,  51. 

Lott,  Chief,  II,  483,  484. 

Lovejoy,  Owen,  II,  321. 

Lovejoy  Station,  Battle  of,  11,41-51. 

Ludlow,  Nicholl,  II,  506,  507,  509. 

Ludwig,  Karl  Friedrick  Wilhelm,  II, 
534. 

Luke,  William  C.,  II,  386. 

Lynde,  D.  B.,  I,  82,  87. 

McAllister,  Fort,  II,  86-100. 

McArthur,  Arthur,  I,  27,  28. 


Leggett,  M.  D.,  I,  611,  612;  II,  5,  7, 

8,  11,  101,  465,  466. 

601 


Index 


McCall,  George  A.,  I,  172,  174. 

McCandless,  William,  I,  439. 

McCarty,  Ellen,  I,  63. 

McCauley,  J.  A.,  II,  318. 

McCleery,  James,  II,  384-386. 

McClellan,  George  B.,  I,  83,  162, 
166-172,  174,  177,  179,  182,  186- 
189,  192-197,  199-207,  209-211, 
216,  217,  219,  220,  222,  225,  227, 
228,  231,  234,  237,  244,  255-257, 
260,  271-274,  277,  278,  288,  289, 
291,  294,  298,  302-305,  308,  310- 
315,  327,  347,  370,  381,  393,  394; 
II,  169,  581. 

McClintock,  J.  M.,  II,  90. 

McCook,  A.McD.,  1,105, 106, 138,588. 

McCook,  Daniel,  I,  584,  585,  588. 

McCook,  Ed.,  I,  501,  542,  544,  566; 
II,  27,  28. 

McCoy,  H.  J.,  II,  547. 

McDonald,  Private,  I,  190,  215,  569, 
570,  572,  573. 

McDowell,  H.  J.,  II,  4. 

McDowell,  Irvin,  I,  139,  143,  144, 
146,  147,  149-155,  157,  163,  164, 
169,  172,  200,  205,  227,  228,  256, 
257,  260,  262-265,  272;  II,  172, 
450,  546. 

McGilvery,  Freeman,  I,  436. 

McGregor,  Sergeant,  I,  68. 

Mcllvain,  Alexander,  I,  505. 

McIntyre,  William,  I,  247. 

McKeever,Chauncey,  I,  144;  II,  549. 

McKenzie,  Alexander,  II,  350. 

McKinley,  William,  II,  570,  574. 

McKinstry,  Justus,  I,  80. 

McLaren,  Adam  N.,  I,  76. 

McLaws,  Lafayette,  I,  275,  278,  288, 
289,  318,  337,  340,  351,  359,  361, 
367,  369. 

McLean,  Nathaniel  C.,  I,  553. 

McMorris,  Dr.,  II,  519. 

McPherson,  J.  B.,  I,  49,  55,  499, 
502-504,  506-508,  510,  519-521, 


523,  529,  532,  542,  550,  556-558, 
560,  562,  566,  573-575,  580,  581, 
586,  590-594,  596,  602,  605-610, 
612,  613;  II,  4-9,  15,  16,  575. 

McQueen,  John,  II,  123,  124,  133. 

McQuesten,  J.  F.,  I,  135. 

McSweeney,  Paul,  II,  81. 

MacBeth,  II,  141. 

MacDonald,  Godfrey  II. ,  II,  565. 

Mack,  Oscar  A.,  I,  80. 

Madawska  War,  I,  12. 

Magruder,  J.  B.,  I,  141,  205,  206. 

Mahan,  Dennis,  I,  385. 

Mallory,  Charles,  II,  168. 

Malvern  Hill,  Battle  of,  I,  166. 

Maney,  George,  I,  612,  616. 

Manigault,  E.  II,  12. 

Mann,  Horace,  II,  393. 

Mann,  M.  R.,  Miss.,  II,  393. 

Mansfield,  Joseph  K.  F.,  I,  131,  132, 
135,  137,  272,  277,  289,  290,  294, 
295,  302. 

Marcy,  R.  B.,  I,  96,  170,  177. 

Marshall,  Joe,  I,  19. 

Marshall,  John  E.,  I,  341. 

Martin,  Sella,  JJ,  317. 

Martin,  James  S.,  II,  10. 

Mason,  E.  C.,  I,  218,  219;  II,  565. 

Meade,  George  G.,  I,  282,  283,  290, 
292,  333-337,  349,  353-355,  359- 
363,  367,  377,  381,  387,  389,  394- 
399,  401,  403,  404,  413,  418,  422- 
426,  432,  433,  436,  439,  440,  444, 
445,448-45 1 , 580;  II,  255, 429, 496. 

Meagher,  Thomas  F.,  I,  183,  185, 
238,  243,  300,  342. 

Meigs,  M.  C.,  I,  164;  II,  450. 

Mellen,  W.  P.,  II,  188. 

Meredith,  Sol,  I,  407,  414. 

Merritt,  Wesley,  I,  434. 

Mersy,  August,  II,  14. 

Mexican  War,  I,  21. 

Meyerholtz,  J.  H.,  II,  552. 


Meysenberg,  T.  A.,  I,  410,  484. 
602 


Index 


Miles,  Dixon  S.,  1, 146,  149,  150,  152 
162,  273,  274,  276-278;  II,  580. 
Miles,  Nelson  A.,  I,  187,  211,  240, 
241,  245,  248,  342;  II,  337,  450, 
475,  547,  548. 

Miller,  James,  I,  178,  243-245. 
Millet,  Henry,  I,  11. 

Millet,  John  D.,  I,  11. 

Milroy,  R.  H.,  I,  386;  II,  55. 
Missionary  Ridge,  Battle  of,  I,  471, 
498. 

Mitchell,  Henry,  I,  23,  24. 

Mitchell,  J.  G.,  I,  584. 

Moltke,  von,  Helmuth  C.  B.,  I,  580. 
Monmouth  Academy,  I,  17,  23. 
Moody,  D.  L.,  I,  501;  II,  558,  560, 
561,  564,  570. 

Moody,  Will,  II,  560-562. 

Moore,  Aaron,  II,  387. 

Moore,  Alexander,  I,  368. 

Moore,  Edward,  II,  334. 

Moore,  Elizabeth,  I,  10. 

Mordecai,  Alfred,  I,  97. 

Mordecai,  Alfred,  Jr.,  I,  97. 
Morestadt,  Frau,  II,  531. 

Morgan,  Edwin  D.,  I,  138. 

Morgan,  James  D.,  I,  585;  II,  17, 
20,  24,  25,  146. 

Morgan,  Thomas  J.,  I,  515,  522. 
Morrill,  Lot  M.,  II,  266. 

Morris,  F.  B.,  II,  395,  396. 

Morris,  W.  W.,  I,  77,  78. 

Morris,  Mrs.  W.  W.,  I,  77,  78. 
Morrow,  Henry  A.,  I,  350. 

Mortie,  Louise  de,  II,  261. 

Morton,  Levi  P.,  II,  496,  542. 
Mosby,  John  S.,  I,  391. 

Mower,  Joseph  A.,  II,  107-110,  134, 
149,  150,  342. 

Moy-Yu-Ling,  II,  478,  479. 
Mulliken,  Charles  H.,  I,  69. 

Munroe,  John,  I,  78,  79. 

Murray,  Ben,  I,  10. 

Murray,  Ellen  and  Two  Sisters,  11,98. 


Naglee,  H.  M.,  I,  229,  232. 

Napoleon,  Prince  Jerome,  I,  169. 

Nasby,  Petroleum  V.  (Mr.  Locke), 
II,  435. 

Natto,  Joe,  I,  84,  86. 

Negro  Conditions  in  Civil  War,  II, 
163-193. 

Nettleton,  F.  E.,  II,  587. 

Nevins,  Rev.,  II,  517. 

Newton,  John,  I,  281,  430,  500,  504- 
506,  513,  518,  520-522,  546,  568, 
582,  583,  591,  602,  604-606,  609, 
611,  613-617,  619. 

New  Hope  Church,  Battle  of,  I, 
542-562. 

New  York  City,  II,  547-557. 

Nichols,  H.  D.,  II,  396. 

Niles,  Flora,  II,  46. 

Nodine,  Richard  H.,  I,  569,  570. 

Norwich  University,  II,  66. 

Officials  of  L.  M.  U.,  II,  586,  587. 

Ogden,  John,  II,  407. 

Oliver,  John  M.,  II,  81,  86. 

Oostanaula  River,  I,  513-527. 

Opdycke,  Emerson,  I,  518,  584. 

Ord,  E.  O.  C.,  II,  332. 

Osborn,  T.  W.,  I,  413,  429,  435; 
II,  110,  111,  143,  215,  217,  218. 

Osterhaus,  P.  J.,  I,  476,  559;  II, 
36,  65,  72,  74,  75,  79-82,  87,  96. 

Otis,  Elizabeth  Stanchfield,  I, 

20. 

Otis,  Elmer  S.,  I,  49. 

Otis,  Ensign,  II,  45. 

Otis,  Frances,  I,  18. 

Otis,  John,  I,  17,  40,  41. 

Otis,  Maria,  I,  18. 

Otis,  Oliver,  I,  20. 

Otis,  William  O.,  I,  18,  40. 

Otto,  August,  I,  428. 

Overton,  M.  F.,  II,  587. 

Owen,  Joshua  T.,  I,  323,  326,  342, 
343. 


603 


Index 


Packard,  A.  S.,  I,  31,  33. 

Page,  Alexander,  II,  387. 

Palmer,  G.  S.,  I,  119,  137,  178,  249, 
250,  310. 

Palmer,  Innis  S.,  I,  229,  341. 

Palmer,  John  M.,  I,  479,  505,  513, 
530,  531,  542,  544,  566,  573,  575, 
581,  582,  584,  590,  592,  593,  606, 
616,  619;  II,  29,  30. 

Parker,  Thomas  J.,  I,  190,  243. 

Patterson,  Robert,  I,  133,  151,  164. 

Patterson.  Robert  F.,  II,  586. 

Payne,  D.  A.,  II,  320,  413. 

Peach  Tree  Creek,  Battle,  1, 608-620. 

Peak,  Mary  S.,  II,  175. 

Pearson,  E.  P.,  I,  412,  472. 

Peck,  John  J.,  I,  233. 

Peck,  Theodore  S.,  II,  580,  582. 

Pender,  William  D.,  I,  407. 

Pendleton,  George  H.,  II,  200. 

Pendleton,  William  N.,  I,  351,  358, 
380,  421. 

Peninsular  Campaign,  I,  166,  199- 
212. 

Perley,  Peleg  Sprague,  I,  30,  35,  98. 

Perry,  A.  J.,  I,  70. 

Petit,  Rufus  D.,  I,  243. 

Pettengill,  John,  I,  26. 

Pettigrew,  J.  J.,  I,  239,  400,  406, 
439. 

Phelps,  J.  W.,  II,  168. 

Phillips,  Wendell,  II,  254. 

Pickett,  George  E.,  I,  64,  244,  331, 
421,  435,  438,  439;  II,  177. 

Pickett,  Miss  Jennie,  I,  64. 

Pickett’s  Mill,  Battle  of,  I,  550-570. 

Pierce,  Ebenezer  W.,  I,  140. 

Pine  Top,  Battle  of,  I,  563. 

Piper,  Alexander,  II,  548. 

Pleasonton,  Alfred,  I,  76,  272,  279, 
280,  282,  285,  302,  312,  318,  350, 
352,  356,  374,  379,  383,  384,  388, 
389,  398,  445,  449. 

Pocataligo,  S.  C.,  II,  103. 


Polk,  Leonidas,  I,  502,  509,  518, 
528,  533,  534,  539,  542,  543,  551, 
563,  564,  578,  604;  II,  26. 

Pomeroy,  S.  C.,  II,  395,  397,  419. 

Pomphrey,  Mr.,  I,  209. 

Pope,  John,  I,  256-266,  268,  269; 
II,  450. 

Porter,  Andrew,  I,  155,  169. 

Porter,  A.  Toomer,  II,  123,  124,  339. 

Porter,  D.  D.,  II,  154. 

Porter,  Fitz  John,  I,  96,  172,  216, 
217,  227,  228,  262,  264,  265,  272, 
277,  289,  303,  305,  311,  312,  370. 

Porter,  Horace,  II,  567. 

Portland,  Oregon,  II,  468-484. 

Posey,  Carnot,  I,  361,  369. 

Potter,  Capt.,  II,  508. 

Potts,  B.  F.,  II,  9,  138. 

Prestman,  Stephen  W.,  I,  567. 

Prochet,  Robert,  II,  556. 

Quimby,  George  W.,  II,  83,  139. 

Radford,  R.  C.  W.,  I,  147. 

Rains,  G.  J.,  I,  233. 

Ramsey,  Douglas,  I,  158. 

Randall,  G.  B.,  I,  620. 

Rankin,  J.  E.,  II,  445. 

Ransom,  Robert,  Jr.,  I,  318,  331, 
337;  II,  32-34,  36,  65,  66. 

Rawlins,  John  A.,  I,  460,  479. 

Raynor,  Kenneth,  II,  391,  393. 

Reconstruction,  II,  163-445. 

Reese,  Chauncey  B.,  II,  87. 

Reeve,  Isaac  V.  D.,  I,  103. 

Reeves,  P.  S.,  II,  381. 

Reno,  Jesse  L.,  I,  264,  265,  268, 
272,  280-282,  311. 

Resaca,  Battle  of,  I,  506-527. 

Reybum,  Robert,  II,  294. 

Reynolds,  John  F.,  I,  101,  107,  311, 
312,  328,  331,  333,  344,  352,  366, 
381,  386,  387,  392,  393,  399,  401- 
404,  407-414. 


604 


Index 


Reynolds,  J.  J.,  II,  343,  450. 

Rhett,  Thomas  S.,  II,  141. 

Rice,  Elliot  W.,  II,  38. 

Richards,  Mr.,  I,  184,  185. 
Richardson,  I.  B.,  I,  150,  172,  196, 
207,  208,  224,  238,  242,  244,  248, 
296,  300-303. 

Richardson,  W.  S.,  II,  587. 
Richmond,  Mary,  I,  9. 

Ricketts,  James  B.,  I,  158,  257,  259, 
264,  282,  283,  290,  292,  293,  295. 
Rigault,  Colonel,  II,  539. 

Robert,  Christopher  R.,  II,  272. 
Robert,  Henry  M.,  I,  92. 

Roberts,  R.  F.,  I,  143,  144. 
Robinson,  James  S.,  I,  618. 
Robinson,  John  C.,  I,  415,  424;  II, 
285,  286. 

Rochambeau,  Marquis,  II,  540. 
Rock  face  Ridge,  Ga.,  II,  504. 
Rodes,  R.  E.,  I,  300,  390,  400,  426. 
Rodman,  Isaac  P.,  I,  190,  280,  303- 
305. 

Rogers,  J.  A.  R.,  II,  405. 

Rogers,  Robert  M.,  I,  419. 

Romero,  M.,  II,  556. 

Roosevelt,  Theodore,  II,  574. 
Rosecrans,  WilliamS.,  1,450,451,457. 
Rosengarten,  Joseph  G.,  I,  410. 
Rosseli,  N.  B.,  I,  75. 

Rosser,  Thomas  H.,  I,  280. 
Rousseau,  Lovell  H.,  I,  601. 
Rowett,  Richard,  II,  61. 

Ruger,  Thomas  H.,  I,  427,  430- 
433,  618. 

Runyon,  Theodore,  I,  146,  152. 
Russell,  Henry  S.,  I,  383. 

Rustin,  Alice  G.,  II,  546. 

Sampson,  Charles  A.  L.,  I,  120,  137. 
Sampson,  G.  W.,  I,  134. 

Sampson,  Jacob  P.,  II,  90. 
Sampson,  Mrs.  S.  S..  I,  437. 
Sampson,  William  T.,  II,  571. 


Sanders,  L.  W.,  II,  587. 

Sanders,  William  P.,  I,  492. 

San  Francisco,  In,  II,  545,  546. 
Sargent,  Frank,  I,  89. 

Savannah,  Ga.,  II,  86-100. 

Sawtelle,  Charles  G.,  I,  58. 

Saxton,  Rufus,  II,  95,  98,  99,  178, 
191,  215,  217,  234,  238,  283. 
Saxton,  Mrs.  Rufus,  II,  99. 

Saxton,  Sam  W.,  II,  99. 

Scammon,  E.  P.,  I,  302. 

Schenck,  Robert  C.,  I,  154,  390. 
Schimmelfennig,  Alexander,  I,  364, 

365,  373,  414,  416,  445. 

Schofield,  J.  M.,  I,  492,  499-501, 

503,  505,  507,  510,  511,  523,  528, 
529,  532,  539,  542,  547,  550,  552, 
554,  560-562,  565,  571,  573,  574, 
576,  579-581,  586,  590-592,  595, 
603-612;  II,  4,  5,  7,  13,  14,  17, 
26,  27,  29,  30,  33,  37,  43,  46,  51, 
131,  145,  152,  154,  332,  549,  558. 
Schoolcraft,  Madam,  II,  459. 
Schurz,  Carl,  I,  264,  348,  349,  364, 

366,  371,  375,  408,  411,  413,  414, 
416, 417, 424, 429,444,467,479,494. 

Schuyler,  E.,  II,  513. 

Scott,  Harvey,  II,  463. 

Scott,  Mrs.,  I,  143,  162. 

Scott,  R.  K.,  II,  557. 

Scott,  Winfield,  I,  12,  60,  133,  135, 
139,  166,  180. 

Sedgwick,  John,  I,  119,  169,  172 
196,  199,  215,  222,  237-240,  242- 
244,  267,  278,  291,  296-299,  302, 
349,  353,  356-360,  366,  369,  377, 
381,  383. 

Seeley,  F.  A.,  II,  348. 

Seligman,  A.  L.,  II,  586. 

Seminole  War,  I,  74-89. 

Sewall,  F.  D.,  I,  178,  187,  215,  251, 
298. 

Sewall,  John  S.,  I,  38. 

Seward,  W.  F.,  I,  180. 


Index 


Seward,  William  H.,  I,  49,  138,  180; 
II,  155,  277. 

Shafter,  Wm.  R.,  II,  548. 

Sharp,  Fred  D.,  II,  571. 

Sharra,  Abram,  I,  442. 

Shepherd,  Alexander  R.,  II,  459. 

Sheridan,  Phil  H.,  I,  192,  478,  479, 
488;  II,  45,  287,  332,  429,  447, 
494,  549. 

Sherman,  Frank  T.,  I,  600. 

Sherman,  John,  II,  553. 

Sherman,  Thomas,  II,  553. 

Sherman,  T.  W.,  I,  189. 

Sherman,  W.  T.,  I,  57,  154,  164, 
192,  458,  471-475,  480-483,  488- 
492,  494,  495,  498,  499,  502,  503, 
.506-510,  515,  518,  519,  521,  525, 
527-529,  531,  532,  535,  536,  538- 
542,  545,  550,  551,  558,  560,  561, 
563,  564,  568-571,  573-577,  579- 
581,  586,  588-593,  595-597,  600- 
603,  605-608,  611;  II,  3,  5,  8,  9, 
13,  14,  16-20,  24,  26-30,  39-53, 
5.5-58,  66,  68-70,  75-80,  83,  85- 
88,  90,  92-97,  99,  102,  104,  108, 
109,  112,  114,  120,  122,  124,  125, 
129,  130,  136,  138-144,  149-158, 
189-194,  206,  207,  209-212,  237, 
240,  267,  281,  361,  429,  450,  452, 
482,  484,  494,  549,  553. 

Sherman’s  March  to  the  Sea,  II,  68- 

100. 

Sherrill,  A.  F.,  II,  545. 

Shickle,  A.  E.,  II,  187. 

Shields,  James,  I,  172,  199,  256. 

Shoemaker,  Bessie,  II,  556. 

Shoemaker,  Mrs.,  II,  556. 

Shoup,  Francis  A.,  I,  534,  598. 

Shunk,  F.  J.,  I,  63. 

Sibley,  C.  C.,  II,  340. 

Sickles,  Daniel  E.,  I,  136,  348,  349, 
356.  357,  359,  361,  364,  365,  367- 
369,  376,  379,  399,  418,  419,  423, 


Sigel,  Franz,  I,  257,  258,  260,  264, 
311,  312,  348,  349. 

Silvey,  William,  I,  70. 

Sinclair,  Franklin,  II,  380. 

Sinclair,  Wm.  Henry,  I,  336. 

Skelly,  D.  A.,  I,  412. 

Sladen,  Joseph  A.,  I,  514,  552,  569, 
570,  572;  II,  216,  446,  461,  477, 
478,  566. 

Sloan,  J.  B.,  II,  302. 

Slocum,  Henry  W.,  I,  168,  311, 354- 
357,  359-363,  365,  367-369,  376, 
381,  393,  399,  413,  416,  418,  419, 
423,  424,  426,  427,  430,  431,  433, 
434,  450,  458,  461,  499;  II,  16,  17, 
41,  42,  51,  57,  70,  75,  76,  94,  103, 
104,  112,  115,  116,  119,  120,  130, 
136-138,  140-144,  146-149,  151, 
553. 

Smith,  C.  H.,  II,  335. 

Smith,  E.  Kirby,  I,  45,  160,  194;  II, 
309. 

Smith,  E.  P.,  I,  486,  535;  II,  402, 
407. 

Smith,  Giles  A.,  II,  103,  104,  108, 
138. 

Smith,  G.  W.,  I,  225,  234,  236,  237, 
240,  241,  578,  598,  604,  608;  II, 
5,  7,  9,  11,  13,  72,  73,  95. 

Smith,  John  A.,  II,  398-400. 

Smith,  John  E.,  II,  46,  103,  104, 109. 

Smith,  John  Lind,  I,  96. 

Smith,  Joseph  S.,  I,  119. 

Smith,  Morgan  L.,  I,  590,  592;  II, 
12,  19,  20,  24. 

Smith,  Orland,  I,  467. 

Smith,  W.  F.,  I,  172,  299,  300,  328, 
481. 

Smith,  William  Sooy,  I,  49. 

Smyrna  Campground,  Battle  of,  I, 
589. 

Smyth,  T.  A.,  I,  436. 

Smyth,  William,  I,  31,  33,  39 


425,  426,  435;  II,  332,  569,  574.  Sollers,  Mr.,  I,  179. 

606 


Index 


Soule,  Mr.,  II,  128. 

South  Mountain,  Battle  of,  I,  271- 
285. 

Spanish  War,  II,  566-573. 

Sparling,  Fred.  W.,  I,  460. 

Spaulding,  Ira,  I,  318,  319. 

Spence,  J.  F.,  II,  586. 

Sprague,  J.  T.,  II,  336. 

Sprague,  J.  W.,  II,  7,  13,  14,  215, 
218,  250,  251,  290,  335. 

Sprague,  William,  I,  138. 

Spurgeon,  Chas.  H.,  II,  542. 

Spurgin,  W.  F.,  II,  488. 

Stanchfield,  Thomas,  I,  13. 

Standish,  Miles,  I,  7. 

Stanley,  David  S.,  I,  478,  500,  504, 
506,  514,  521,  555,  568,  581,  582, 
584,  591,  594,  596,  597,  606-611; 
II,  16,  43,  51. 

Stannard,  George  J.,  I,  438;  II, 
580-583. 

Stanton,  Edwin  M.,  I,  201,  256,  313, 
379,  389;  II,  181,  1S9-191,  205, 
207-209,  214,  221,  227,  236,  240, 
241,  257,  258,  263,  284,  390. 

Staples,  Henry  G.,  I,  120,  143. 

Starke,  W.  E.,  I,  293. 

Stearns,  D.  H.,  II,  473. 

Steedman,  James  B.,  I,  601;  II,  296, 
297. 

Steele,  Chaplain,  II,  571. 

Steele,  James,  II,  468. 

Steele,  J.  W.,  I,  327. 

Steinwehr,  von,  A.,  I,  350,  357,  363, 
364,  368,  372,  408,  413,  417,  424, 
467,  479,  494;  II,  537. 

Stetson,  Mrs.,  I,  253. 

Stevens,  Consul,  II,  507. 

Stevens,  Isaac  I.,  I,  268,  269. 

Stevenson,  Carter  L.,  I,  598,  610, 
611;  II,  111,  141. 

Stewart,  Alexander  P.,  I,  521,  604, 
618;  II,  12,  21,  22,  25,  26,  28,  57, 
141. 


Stewart,  Thomas  J.,  II,  569. 

Stinson,  Alonzo,  I,  160. 

Stinson,  Harry  M.,  I,  327,  344,  383, 
386,  446,  472,  537,  552;  II,  35, 
36,  216. 

Stoever,  Professor,  I,  443. 

Stone,  Charles  P.,  I,  174. 

Stone,  George  A.,  II,  120,  121. 

Stoneman,  George,  I,  219-221,  348, 
350,  379,  507-509,  532,  542,  561, 
579,  592,  595,  596,  605,  606;  II, 
27,  28,  328. 

Stooksbury,  W.  L.,  II,  583. 

Streight,  A.  D.,  II,  55. 

Strong,  William  Ev  II,  8,  23,  24, 
125,  138,  143,  216. 

Stuart,  J.  E.  B.,  I,  53,  147,  156,  173, 
196,  198,  216,  259-261,  266,  267, 
274,  279,  293,  305,  318,  331,  334, 
337,  352,  358,  367,  380-384,  388, 
389,  401,  434. 

Stuart,  Owen,  II,  82. 

Sturgis,  Samuel  D.,  I,  280,  302-305. 

Sturgis,  William  B.,  II,  387. 

Sully,  Alfred,  I,  238,  269,  326,  342. 

Sumner,  Charles,  II,  198,  200. 

Sumner,  E.  V.,  I,  172,  180-185,  190, 
194-199,  207,  215,  220,  221,  227- 
229,  237,  238,  240,  242,  266,  267, 
269,  272,  277,  279,  290,  291,  295- 
298,  301,  302,  305,  311,  316,  317, 
322,  325,  326,  329,  333,  337,  338, 
344,  347. 

Sumner,  Sam  S.,  I,  183,  186. 

Sunderland,  Byron,  I,  175. 

Swayne,  Noah,  II,  218,  345. 

Swayne,  Wager,  II,  107,  217,  218, 
249,  253,  254,  287,  333-335,  353, 
411,  413. 

Sweeny,  Thomas  W.,  I,  519,  520; 
II,  4,  5,  6. 

Sykes,  George,  I,  298,  303,  359-362. 

Sylvey,  Jerome,  II,  46. 

Sylvey,  Spurgeon,  II,  46. 


607 


Index 


Symington,  Carrie,  I,  64. 

Symington,  John,  I,  62,  64. 

Symington,  Mrs.  John,  I,  63,  64,  71. 

Symington,  Mary,  I,  72. 

Taggart,  Samuel  L.,  II,  87,  216. 

Taliaferro,  Wm.  B.,  I,  264,  332. 

Tallman,  James  H.,  I,  120. 

Taney,  Roger  B.,  II,  278. 

Tanner,  James,  II,  569. 

Tappan,  Lewis,  II,  174,  328. 

Taylor,  J.  H.,  I,  186,  267. 

Taylor,  Nelson,  I,  336. 

Taylor,  William,  I,  329,  331;  II, 
552. 

Taylor,  Wm.  N.,  II,  105,  106. 

Terry,  A.  H.,  II,  8S,  135,  145,  284. 

Thomas,  George  H.,  I,  192,  281, 402, 
456,  458,  459,  466,  470,  471,  475, 
477,  482-490,  493-495,  499,  500, 
502,  503,  507,  510,  520,  522,  529, 
533,  542,  544,  558,  561,  564,  565, 
569,  571,  573,  574,  576,  579-581, 
590,  592,  593,  595,  597,  600,  601, 
603,  606,  607,  619;  II,  4,  7,  16-18, 
27,  30,  33,  37,  39,  40,  43,  45,  46, 
51,  131,  332. 

Thomas,  Lorenzo,  I,  106,  135,  200; 
II,  186,  188. 

Thomas,  Samuel,  II,  215,  217,  242, 
243,  283,  301. 

Thompson,  D.  B.,  II,  463. 

Thorn,  Mrs.  Peter,  I,  419. 

Tillson,  Davis,  II,  217,  249,  255, 
286,  300,  301,  340. 

Toombs,  Robert,  I,  294,  302-304. 

Torgler,  Ernst,  II,  23. 

Tourtelotte,  John  E.,  II,  58,  61,  63. 

Towne,  Laura  E.,  II,  98. 

Townsend,  E.  D.,  II,  210. 

Treadwell,  Thomas  J.,  I,  49. 

Treat,  Charles  G.,  II,  558,  559,  565. 

Trimble,  Isaac  R.,  I,  261. 

True,  N.  T.,  I,  22. 


Trumbull,  Lyman,  II,  280,  282, 
322. 

Tucker,  Isaac  N.,  I,  118,  120. 
Tucker,  R.  S.,  II,  159. 

Tucker,  Mrs.  R.  S.,  II,  159. 

Tunnel  Hill,  Ga.,  II,  504. 

Tupper,  H.  M.,  II,  412. 

Turner,  B.  S.,  II,  334. 

Twiggs,  David  E.,  I,  103,  182. 

Tyler,  Daniel,  I,  146,  150-154,  391- 
393. 

Tyler,  Warren,  II,  387. 

Tyndale,  Hector,  I,  468. 

Underwood,  Adeline  B.,  I,  469. 
United  States  Military  Academy,  I, 
42,  45,  55,  59,  70,  88,  89,  98. 
Bible  Class,  I,  52. 

Cadet  at  the,  I,  44-58. 
Graduation,  I,  59-73. 
Instructor,  I,  90,  111. 
Superintendent  of  the,  II,  485- 
490. 

Upham,  Elizabeth  K.,  II,  556. 
Upham,  Francis  W.,  II,  556. 
Upham,  Thomas  C.,  I,  31,  33. 
Upton,  Emery,  I,  92. 

Vandever,  William,  II,  58. 

Van  Dorn,  Earl,  I,  103. 

Van  Duzer,  John  C.,  I,  525,  580. 
Vefik,  Achmet,  II,  511,  512. 

Vicars,  Hedley,  I,  81. 

Victoria,  Queen,  II,  543. 

Villard,  Henry,  I,  452. 

Vincent,  Thomas  M.,  II,  449. 

Wadhams,  William,  II,  468,  470, 
472. 

Wadsworth,  James  S.,  I,  172,  203, 
256,  352,  407,  408,  412,  415,  417, 
418,  445. 

Wagner,  George  D.,  I,  500,  583, 
584. 


608 


Index 


Waite,  Alexander  B.,  I,  39,  40. 
Waite,  Mrs.  A.  B.,  I,  66. 

Waite,  Elizabeth  Ann,  I,  35,  36,  40, 
41,  66. 

Wakefield,  Mr.,  II,  469. 

Walcutt,  C.  C.,  II,  71,  72,  74. 
Walker,  Henry  H.,  I,  48. 

Walker,  J.  G.,  I,  276,  293. 

Walker,  W.  H.  T.,  I,  337,  559,  560, 
612,  615,  619;  II,  15,  575. 
Wallace,  Lew,  II,  510. 

Walthall,  Edward  C.,  I,  618. 
Wangelin,  Hugo,  II,  5,  8,  10. 

Ward,  J.  H.  H.,  I,  244,  245,  248. 
Ward,  W.  T.,  I,  494,  496,  517,  615, 
616,  619. 

Ware,  E.  A.,  II,  403. 

Warner,  W7illard,  II,  48. 

Warren,  Gouveneur  K.,  I,  106. 
Washburn,  Israel,  I,  106,  114-116, 
255. 

Washburn,  J.  H.,  II,  587. 
Washington,  Booker  T.,  II,  415, 
416. 

Washington,  D.  C.,  Camping  in,  I, 
133-145. 

Washington,  D.  C.,  Life  in,  II,  459- 
467. 

Washington,  James  B.,  I,  232. 
Watkins,  Mr.,  I,  185,  195. 
Wauhatchie,  Battle  of,  I,  465-470. 
Wayne,  H.  C.,  II,  78,  80,  82. 

Webb,  A.  S.,  I,  430,  436,  439, 
444. 

Webb,  E.  B.,  I,  70;  II,  97. 

Weber,  Max,  I,  300. 

Weir,  Robert,  I,  91. 

Weir,  Mrs.  Robert,  I,  96. 

Weiss,  Charley,  I,  215,  437. 

Weld,  Allan  H.,  I,  25. 

Welles,  Gideon,  I,  139. 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  I,  612;  II,  24, 
495,  496. 

Wells,  Spencer,  I,  27. 


Wessells,  Henry  W.,  I,  229. 

Wever,  Clark  R.,  II,  64. 

Whaley,  William,  II,  238. 

Wheeler,  Joseph,  I,  541,  542,  579, 
601,  602,  605,  606,  608,  609;  II, 
7,  14,  28,  30,  47,  74,  78,  80. 

Whipple,  A.  W.,  I,  157,  333. 

White,  Julius,  I,  273,  275,  276. 

Whiting,  Henry,  I,  143. 

Whiting,  W.  H.  C,,  I,  225,  226,  239, 
241. 

Whiting,  William,  II,  438. 

Whittaker,  J.  C.,  II,  485,  486. 

Whittier,  John  Greenleaf,  II,  414. 

Whittle,  D.  W.,  II,  62,  570,  571. 

Whittlesey,  Eliphalet,  I,  187,  298, 
309,  310,  327,  366;  II,  215,  217, 
233,  279,  283,  352,  353,  398-400 
430,  446. 

Wiedrich,  Michael,  I,  364,  476. 

Wiggin,  Sullivan  D.,  I,  254. 

Wilcox,  John,  I,  22. 

Wilder,  Charles  B.,  II,  175. 

Wilkinson,  M.  C.,  II,  461,  464,  468, 
470,  566. 

Willard,  John,  I,  426,  436. 

Willcox,  O.  B.,  I,  149,  154,  280,  303, 
304,  311,  312,  338,  344,  345. 

Willerod,  Captain,  II,  560. 

Williams,  A.  S.,  I,  172,  199,  294, 
432,  515,  577,  616-618;  II,  51, 
113. 

Williams,  Daniel  and  Mrs.,  II,  469. 

Williams,  George,  II,  543. 

Williams,  Miss,  II,  511. 

Williams,  Robert,  I,  281. 

Williams,  Seth,  I,  46,  51,  69,  311. 
450,  583. 

Williams,  Thomas,  II,  167. 

Williamsburgh,  Battle  of,  I,  213- 
226. 

Williamson,  Captain,  II,  91. 

Williamson,  James  A.,  II,  81,  82. 

Willich,  August,  I,  518. 


Index 


Wilson,  Henry,  I,  175,  446;  II,  198, 
322,  323,  353,  354,  386,  395,  397. 

Wilson,  James  H.,  II,  158. 

Wisser,  John  P.,  II,  539,  543. 

Wood,  Fernando,  II,  436,  437,  442. 

Wood,  H.  Clay,  II,  463. 

Wood,  James,  I,  615. 

Wood,  T.  J.,  I,  478,  479,  500,  504, 
511,  513,  514,  521,  537,  551-555, 
568,  569,  582,  591,  604,  606-609; 
II,  288,  301,  340. 

Woodbury,  Daniel  P.,  I,  319,  323. 

Woodford,  Stewart  L.,  I,  126;  II, 
587. 

Woodman,  E.  W.,  II,  45. 

Woods,  Charles  R.,  II,  13,  14,  19, 
21,  24,  66,  70,  72-74,  122,  135, 
148. 

Woods,  George  W.,  I,  25,  27. 


Woods,  Leonard,  I,  31,  32,  42. 
Wool,  John  E.,  II,  175. 
Woolworth,  Jeanie,  II,  493. 
Woolworth,  J.  M.,  II,  493. 
Wotherspoon,  Wm.  W.,  II,  565. 
Wright,  A.  R.,  I,  361,  369. 

Wright,  James  S.,  II,  81. 

Wright,  R.  R.,  II,  414. 

Wright,  W.  W.,  I,  524. 

Yarmouth  Academy,  I,  17,  24,  25. 
Yorke,  L.  E.,  II,  125. 

Yorktowm,  Siege  of,  I,  210. 

Young,  B.  F.,  II,  587. 

Young,  D.,  II,  556. 

Young,  S.  B.  M.,  II,  62. 

Zeitung,  General,  II,  534. 

Zook,  Samuel  K.,  I,  187,  341. 


610 


aTH  OF  GENERAL  HOWARD 

- {F'eA,  .*7  •/ 

,nd  to  a  Career  of  Brilliant^ 
Achieveme  nt 


Soldier,  Author,  Orator  and  a  Christian 
Gentleman 


His  Was  a  Life  Devoted  to  the 

Nation 


At  Battle  of  Gettysburg  He  “Saved”  the  Union 

Army  ,  ^  L 

—  *1*  1 

Burlington,  Vt.,  Oct.  27-General  Ouver 
Otis  Howard  was  stricken  with  heart  j 
disease  at  his  home  here  last  night  and 
dropped  from  his  chair  in  a  comatose 
state,  dying  before  a  physician  could  be 
summoned.  He  had  made  no  complaint  to 
the  members  of  the  family  of  not  feeling  as 
well  as  usual  and  his  death  caused  a  great 
shock.  The  noted  soldier  died  as  he  had 
often  expressed  a  wish  that  he  might  o 
summoned,  and  in  many  of  his  public  lec¬ 
tures  at  Chautauqua  assemblies  and  else¬ 
where  he  had  said,  “Come,  Jesus,  when  you 
will.  You  will  find  me  ready.” 

Last  week  General  Howard  was  in  On¬ 
tario  delivering  his  lecture,  “Abraham  Lm-  • 
coin,”  and  his  sprightliness  and  vivacity, 

considering  his  weight  of  seventy-nine 

veare,  were  the  subject  of  comment.  H  s 
last  public  appearance  was  at  London  on 
Sunday  night.  On  Monday  he  returned  to 

his  home  here  and  to  all  aPPeara"cesR^*f 
at  that  time  in  his  usual  health.  Since 
then  he  had  said  nothing  about  feeling  un¬ 
well  and  so  far  as  is  known  had  not  even 
mentioned  the  infirmities  due  to  his  age. 

Colonel  Jones  of  the  Tenth  United  States 
Cavalry,  stationed  at  Fort  Ethan  A  dm, 
has  ordered  a  guard  of  honor  stationed  be¬ 
fore  the  Howard  house  until  tne  hour  of 
the  funeral. 

A  Career  of  Signal  Service  for  the  Nation 


His  Brilliant  Work  In  the  Civil 
War  General  Howard  Made  a  R cou¬ 
nt, on  of  the  First  Order— Fighter, 
intlior,  Orator;  hut,  Above  All,  a 
Jjhristian  Gentleman 
With  the  passing  of  General  Oliver 
Otis  Howard,  there  remains  alive  only 
i  one  ranking  officer  who  commanded  a 
S  Union  army  during  the  Civil  War.  That 
ifficer  is  General  Grenville  M.  Dodge. 

1  General  Howard’s  career  was  one  of 
ignal  service  and  achievement;  as  gen- 
ral  of  division  In  the  Peninsular  cam- 
■algn  under  McClellan,  in  the  Atlanta 
ampaign  and  at  Gettysburg,  he  earned 
reputation  of  the  first  order.  At  fair 
iaks  he  lost  his  right  arm,  and  Con- 
ress  awarded  him  a  medal  of  honor  for 
oat  day’s  service,  and  gave  him  a  reso- 
ition  of  thanks  for  his  action  at  Get- 
/sburg,  when  he  first  commanded  the 
leventh  Corps,  and  on  the  death  of  Gen- 
ral  Reynolds  assumed  by  virtue  of  his 
ink  the  command  of  the  three  corps,  the 


_  / 

left  wing  of  the  army,  flfuch  critic!, 

was  made  on  his  conduct  on  this  first 
day,  and  in  fact  he  was  superseded  on 
the  field  by  General  Meade,  who  ap¬ 
pointed  General  Hancock  in  his  place, 
and  yet  his  undoubted  bravery  and  bril¬ 
liant  action  justified  the  honor  given  him 
by  Congress.  His  Civil  War  service  wa& 
supplemented  by  many  subsequent  em¬ 
ployments. 

FOUNDED  LINCOLN  UNIVERSITY 

General  Howard  will  be  remembered  long 
in  history  as  the  founder  of  thje  Lincoln 
Memorial  University,  located  at  Cumber¬ 
land  Gap,  Tenn.,  almost  at  the  corner¬ 
ing  of  three  States — Virginia,  Kentucky 
and  Tennessee— ^.nd  the  only  point  within 
thirty  miles  where  'a  wagon  could  cross 
the  Cumberland  range  of  the  Appalachian 
Mountains  at  the  time  of  the  Civil  War. 
It  was  the  result  of  a  talk  between  Gen¬ 
eral  Ploward  and  Abraham  Lincoln,  shortly 
after  the  battle  of  Gettysburg,  during  which 
the  President  urged  upon  him  the  virtues 
of  the  loyal  mountaineers,  from  whom 
Lincoln  himself  had  sprung. 

More  than  thirty  years  afterward,  when 
the  failure  of  Baring  Bros,  brought  disas¬ 
ter  to  the  manufacturing  centre  and  health 
resort,  created  by  $25,000,000  of  English 
capital,  Howard  stopped  a  day  and  a  night 
wth  Ills  friend,  Darwin  R.  James  of  New 
York,  at  place  from  whence  he  had  marched 
to  Chattanooga  and  Lookout  Mountain  and 
to  the  support  of  Grant.  They  found  that 
a  sanitorium,  built  for  .$39,000,  was  for  sale 
for  .$15,000,  with  all  its  beautiful  grounds 
and  extensive  farm  lands,  and  with  one 
heart  and  voice  they  declared  this  to  be  the 
place  for  the  Lincoln  Memorial. 

Funds  were  raised  and  the  university  was 
chartered  by  Tennessee  in  1897.  It  was 
'  controlled  by  a  board  of  trustees  drawn 
from  different  denominations  and  from 
:  North  and  South,  and  thus  became  non- 

sectarian  and  non-sectional.  It  was  dedi¬ 
cated  to  the  spiritual,  educational  and  ma¬ 
terial  uplift  of  the  mountaineers — descend¬ 
ed  from  the  Scotch-Irish,  English,  Germans 
and  French  Huguenots,  whom  Howard 
l  loved  to  call  “his  people” — and  to  the  maln- 
I  tcnance  and  extension  of  that  institution  he 
i  devoted  the  remainder  of  his  active  life  in 
i  lectures,  literature,  personal  appeals  and 
L  in  its  management  as  president. 

:  SAVED  ARMY  AT  GETTYSBURG 

:  The  war  historian  will  make  General 

Howard  most  famous  because  of  what  he 
did  at  Gettysburg,  July  1,  1863.  General 
Reynolds  had  fallen,  leaving  Howard  in 
command  of  the,  field.  .  Assailed  by  Lee, 
Longstreet  and  Ewell,  with  thrice  his  num¬ 
ber  of  men,  he  saved  his  army  and  his 
country,  and  secured  the  adoption  of  his 
position  by  General  Meade. 

On  the  second  day  he  repeatedly  sent  mes¬ 
sages  to  Meade  asking  the  occupation  of 
Little  Round  Top,  and  for  three  nights  he 
pollowed  his  head  on  a  grave  at  Cemetery 
Hill,  where  250  cannon  of  the  enemy  con¬ 
verged  their  fire.  With  his  artillery  the 
final  charge  of  Pickett’s  men  was  so  thinned 
tfiat  four  of  their  regimental  standards 
were  taken  by  seventy  men— all  that  re¬ 
mained  of  the  Nineteenth  Massachusetts, 
supporting  his  guns. 

For  this  superb  bravery  and  sound  mili¬ 
tary  judgment  he  received  the  “thanks  of 
Congress  and  the  American  people,”  by  a 
vote  on  Jan.  28,  1864.  ■ 


General  Howard  was  known  as  “the 
Christian  soldier,”  the  “American  Have¬ 
lock,”  because  he  so  much  reminded  his 
fellow-officers,  the  rank  and  file  of  his  army 
and  the  people  of  America  of  the  famous 
English  general. 

He  had  the  most  sublime  faith  In  God 
and  ready  submission  to  his  will.  During 
and  after  the  war  he  was  an  officer  in  the 
Christian  Commission,  became  president  of 
the  National  Temperance  Society  upon  the 
retirement  of  John  Wanamaker,  was  at  the 
head  of  the  Congregational  Home  Mission¬ 
ary  Society  for  several  years,  and  wa- 
connected  with  several  other  religious,  re¬ 
form,  educational  and  philanthropic  organ¬ 
izations,  to  all  of  which  he  gave  his  zea! 
and  his  influence. 

GENERAL  SHERMAN’S  TRIBUTE 
Referring  to  General  Howard,  General 
Sherman  once  wrote  to  General  Grant: 
“I  find  a  polished  and  Christian  gentle¬ 
man,  exhibiting  the  highest  and  most 
chivalrous  traits  of  character.”  To  the 
man  who  was  known  all  his  life  as  “The 
Christian  Soldier,”  there  could  have  been 
no  higher  praise.  Enviable  as  was  his, 
record  as  a  soldier,  he  was  prouder  of  his 
career  as  a  public  spirited  citizen.  He 
was  a  man  of  large  human  interests, 
stretching  far  beyond  the  confines  of  his 
military  life.  Lecturer,  educatoi*,  writer 
and  publicist,  he  was  actively  engaged  to 
the  last  in  behalf  of  his  fellow  man.  His 
life  was  a  varied  and  stirring  one.  At 
the  age  of  eleven  he  was  a  fatherless 
boy,  struggling  for  an  education;  at  nine¬ 
teen  a  college  graduate;  at  twenty-four  a 
graduate  of  West  Point  and  a  lieutenant 
in  the  United  States  army.  Later  he  led 
troops  into  twenty-two  battles,  and, 
counting  his  Indian  campaigns,  took  part 
i  nearly  as  many  engagements  as 
lighting  Phil”  Sheridan.  When  he  re¬ 
ed  from  active  service  he  was  only 
step  removed  from  the  highest  com* 

!  mand  in  the  military  service  of  the 
United  States. 

£  General  Howard  was  born  in  Leeds,  Me., 

8,  1830,  the  son  of  Rowland  Bailey 
|  aryd  Eliza  (Otis)  Howard.  His  family  was 
|  in  moderate  circumstances  ana  he  vvas 
i  obliged  to  spend  his  boyhood  in  hard  work 
upon  the  farm,  attending  the  district  school 
during  such  time  as  he  could  be  spared, 
and  afterward  fitting  for  college  in  the 
academies  at  Monmouth  and  Yarmouth.  He 
entered  Bcwdoin  in  184(5  and  graduated  in 
181)0,  being  given  the  degree  of  Master  of 
Arts  three  years  later.  Through  the  in¬ 
fluence  of  his  uncle  he  was  appointed  a 
cadet  in  the  United  States  Military  Acade¬ 
my  at  West  Point  Sept.  1,  1830,  and  Vi  as 
graduated  fourth  in  his  class  of  forty-six 
in  1854,  with  the  brevet  rank  of  second  lieu¬ 
tenant  of  ordnance.  He  served  at  the 
Watervliet,  N.  Y.,  and  Augusta,  Me.,  ar¬ 
senals  from,  his  graduation  until  1837,  when 
he  vras  appointed  chief  of  ordnance  on  the 
staff  of  General  Harney  and  participated 
a  hostilities  against  the  Seminole  Indians 
Florida.  On  Sept.  21,  1857,  he  was  de- 
Ted  for  duty  at  the  military  academy  as 
feSsor  of  mathematics,  and  served  there 
1  the  opening  of  the  Civil  War,  when 
sked  to  be  given  active  service  in  ihe 
This  being  refused,  he  resigned  to  j 


accept  a  position  in  the  volunteer  service 
and  was  commissioned  as  colonel  of  the 
Third  Maine  Regiment  June  4,  1861,  and 
sent  to  the  front.  He  served  in  the  de¬ 
fence  of  Washington  and  commanded  a 
brigade  in  the  Manassas  campaign,  being 
engaged  in  the  first  battle  of  Bull  Run, 
July  21,  1861. 

BRIGADIER  GENERAL  OF  VOLUNTEERS 

He  was  appointed  brigadier-general  of 
volunteers  Sept.  3,  1861,  and  commanded 
a  division  in  the  defences  of  Washington, 
making  a  reconnoisance  early  in  the  spring 
of  1862  from  Washington  to  the  Rappa¬ 
hannock  River.  He  also  participated  in 
the  Peninsula  campaign  with  the  army  of 
the  Potomac,  and  was  engaged  in  the  siege 
of  Yorktown  and  the  battle  of  Fair  Oaks, 
June  1,  1862.  It  was  twilight  when  How- 
j  ard’s  command  arrived  on  the  scene,  and 
it  was  obliged  to  pass  over  the  field  where 
the  battle  had  been  raging  all  day.  The 
next  morning,  during  the  final  engagement. 
General  Howard  was  shot  through  the 
right  forearm,  but  with  a  handkerchief  tied 
around  it  he  continued  his  command, 
breaking  through  the  ranks  of  a  skirmish¬ 
ing  party  and  pushing  into  the  thickest  of 
the  fight.  A  second  ?hot  made  amputation 
of  the-  arm  inevitable.  He  was  invalided 
home,  but  during  his  convalescence  he  de¬ 
voted  himself  to  raising  volunteers,  and  re¬ 
turned  to  his  command  Aug.  27,.  and  was 
engaged  in  a  skirmish  near  Centerville, 
Sept.  1. 

IN  THE  THICK  OF  THE  FRAY 

He  participated  in  the  Maryland  campaign  ; 
succeeded  General  Sedgwick  In  command  of 
the  second  division  Second  Corps,  Army  of 
the  Potomac,  when  the  latter  was  wounded 
at  Antietam  Sept.  14;  was  in  the  subsequent 
march  to  Falmouth  in  October  and  Novem¬ 
ber,  and  in  the  battle  of  Fredericksburg; 
was  appointed  major  general  of  volunteers 
Nov.  29,  1862;  served  in  the  Rappannock  cam¬ 
paign,  1862-63;  commanded  the  Eleventh 
Corps  at  Chancellorsville,  April  and  May, 
1863;  was  in  the  Pennsylvania  campaign, 
June-September,  where  he  was  engaged  in 
the  battle  of  Gettysburg,  and  then  in  the 
pursuit  of  the  enemy  as  far  as  Warrenton, 
Va.,  and  in  guarding  the  Orange  and  Alex¬ 
andria  Railroad.  In  October  his  corps 
was  put  en  route  for  Bridgeport,  Tenn., 
where  he  joined  the  Army  of  the  Cumber¬ 
land  and  took  part  In  the  operations  about 
Chattanooga,  being  engaged  in  the  action 
of  Lookout  Valley,  the  battle  of  Missionary 
Ridge  and  the  expedition  for  the  relief  of 
Knoxville  up  to  December. 

Upon  the  occupation  of  Chattanooga  Gen¬ 
eral  Howard  was  placed  in  command  up  to 
May  3,  1S64.  He  was  assigned  to  the  com¬ 
mand  of  the  Fourth  Army  Corps  in  April 
when  the  Eleventh  and  Twelfth  were  con¬ 
solidated  to  form  the  Twentieth;  and 'held 
it  until  July  27,  when  he  was  'given  com¬ 
mand  of  the  army  of  the  Tennessee  in  the 
invasion  of  Georgia.  He  was  engaged  in 
the  operations  around  Dalton,  in  the  battles 
and  actions  of  Resaca,  Adairsville,  Cass- 
ville,  Dallas  and  Picketts  Mill,  where  on 
May  27,  1864,  he  was  again  wounded.  After 
this  he  served  in  battles  andv  skirmishes 
about  Pine  and  Kenesaw  mountains,  at 
Smyrna  campground  and  Peach  Tree  Creek, 
the  siege  of  Atlanta,  the  combat  at  Ezra 
church— being  breveted  major  general  in  the 


regular  army  for  “gallant  and 
conduct”  there— the  battle  of  Jonesboro,  the 
surrender  of  Atlanta  and  the  occupancy  of 
the  city. 

He  then  pursued  Hood  into  Alabama,  par¬ 
ticipated  in  Sherman’s  “march  to  the  sea,” 
and  was  engaged  in  numerous  actions  and 
skirmishes  under  Sherman  up  to  the  sur¬ 
render  of  Johnston,  April  26,  1865. 

Ait  the  conclusion  of  the  war  General 


Howard  was  appointed,  May  12,  1865,  com¬ 
missioner  of  the  Bureau  of  Refugees,  Freed- 
men  and  Abandoned  Lands,  with  headquar¬ 
ters  at  Washington,  which  position  he  held 
until  1872,  when  he  was  appointed  Indian 
•Commissioner  for  New'  Mexico  and  Arizona. 
He  commanded  the  Department  of  the  Co¬ 
lumbia,  1874-81 ;  was  superintendent  of  the 
Military  Academy,  1881-82  ;  commanded  the 
Department  of  the  Platte,  1882-S6 ;  depart¬ 
ments  of  California,  Columbia  and  Arizona, 
1886-88;  and  the  division  of  the  Atlantic 
from  1891  until  Nov.  8,  1894,  when  his  flag 
was  lowered  at  Governor’s  Island,  N.  Y., 
and  he  retired  from  the  army  to  become  a 
civilian-citizen. 

General  Howard  received  the  degree  of 
LL.D.  from  Shurtleff  (Ill.)  College  in  1S65, 
from  Gettysburg  Theological  Seminary  in 
1866,  and  from  Bowdoin  (Me.)  College  in 
1S88.  In  1884  he  wfas  also  created  a  cheva¬ 
lier  of  the  Legion  of  Honor  by  the  French 
Government.  General  Howard  married,  on 
Feb.  14,  1855,  Elizabeth  Ann,  daughter  of 
Alexander  P.  Waite  of  Portland,  Me.,  and 
five  sons  and  two  daughters  were  ‘born  to 
them. 


PERSONAL  CHARACTERISTICS 


General  Howard,  although  reticent,  self- 
centred  and  exclusive  before  and  during  the 
Civil  War,  subsequently  became  one  of  the 
more  affable  and  social  of  men,  easily  ap¬ 
proachable  and  ready  to  impart  and  re¬ 
ceive  suggestions  on  any  subject.  He  also 
became  an  orator  of  ability  and  renown, 
being  sought  for  all  over  the  country.  His 
fnasterpiece  of  eloquence,  perhaps,  was  his 
address  at  Chattanooga  on  the  occasion  of 
the  meeting  of  Union  and  Confederate  sol¬ 
diers  of  the  army  of  the  Tennessee 
on  Sept.  19,  1895.  His  chosen  subject  wras 
“The  American  Volunteer,”  and  in  the 
course  of  his  remarks  he  extolled  the  valor, 
virtues,  sacrifice  and  patriotism  of  the  men 
on  both  sides,  and  said:  “We  all  agree  that 
the .....  war  was  necessary.  Nothing  could 
have  warded  it  off.  Slavery  was  the  cause 
of  the  division,  and  it  was  necessary  that  it 
be  completely  rooted  out.  The  Providence 
of  God  went  beyond  the  projects  of  men  in 
its  destruction.” 

General  Howmrd  was  well  known  as  a 
Clubman,  being  a  member  of  the  Union 
League  Club  of  New  York,  the  Authors’ 
Club  and  several  literary,  military  and 
civic  organizations.  He  was  a  voluminous 
writer  for  literary  magazines,  and  upon 
special  topics  in  which  he  was  interested 
for  the  newspaper  press. 

After  his  retirement  from  the  army  Gen¬ 
eral  Howard’s  lines  were  cast  in  pleasant 
places,  and  he  lived  a  life  of  enjoyment 
at  his  new  home  in  Burlington,  Vt.,  a  few 
miles  from  Fort  Ethan  Allen,  where  his 
eldest  son  was  in  command.  He  offered  his 
services  to-  the  Government  at  the  begin¬ 
ning  of  the  Spanish  Wan,  but  they  could 
not  be  accepted  under  the  statute  prohibit¬ 
ing  the  employment  of  retired  officers  in 
such  service. 


— 


GENERAL  HOWARD 

Cc*-Z>  /  6  (,  t 

l  The  great  figures  on  the  stage  </f  t^ie 
Civil  War,  those  on  whom  the  eyes  of  the 
Union  and  the  Confederacy  were  fixed 
either  during  the  entire  struggle  or  for 
one  of  its  great  episodes,  have  passed  to 
their  rest.  The,  political  leaders  of  the. first 
rank  have  gone,  and  so  have  the  great  com¬ 
manders.  There  must,  be  living  still  quits, 
a  number  of  general  officers,  commanders 
of  brigades,  and  possibly  of  divisions,  but 
those  who  commanded  "armies”  are  al¬ 
most  without  exception  with  the  dead, 
whether  we  look  North  or  South.  An 
I  "army,”  it  should  be  premised,  is  a  body  of 
I  several  corps,  or  even  of  smaller  units, 
having  as  its  scoped  of  action  one  of  the 
grand  divisions  of  the  scene  of  war,  taking 
part  in  the  great  operations,  and  headed 
by  an  officer  of  high  rank  and  vested  with 
corresponding  discretion  and  authority  in 
carrying  out  a  policy  or  one  of  its  auxiliary 
plans.  In  that  sense  the  late  General  O.  O. 
Howard  was  not  the  last  "army”  com¬ 
mander  of  the  Union.  Be  w.ho  should,  of 
all  men,  have  been  the  best  authority  on 
this  point,  considered  a  few  .years  ago  that 
he  shared  this  distinction  with  General 
Grenville  M.  Dodge,  who  succeeded  Rose- 
crans  in  command  of  the  Department  of 
Missouri  late  in  the  Civil  War  and  had 
general  direction  of  operations  in  that  sec¬ 
tion.  General  Dodge  is  living  and  becomes, 
according  to  this  standard,  which  is  not 
merely  technical,  the  last  army  commander  , 
of  the  Union. 

The  late  General  Howard  was  equally  in¬ 
teresting  as  a  man  and  as  an  officer.  Of  a 
deeply  religious  nature,  earnestly  active  in 
all  movements  for  moral  uplift  of  the  army 
and  the  community,  of  dauntless  personal 
courage,  full  of  kind  and  helpful  impulses, 
he  has  been  called  the  "American  Have¬ 
lock.”  The  parallelism  is  certainly  good  as 
regards  character,  if  it  does  not  extend 
to  military  services.  He  had  a  cultivation 
much  wider  than  was  commonly  found 
among  officers  in  the  old  days,  for  he  en¬ 
tered  West  Point  after  graduating  at  "Bow- 
doin.  Such  combinations  of  the  academic 
and  the  military  training  are  not  frequent 
today,  but  when  Howard  put  on  his  cadet 
uniform,  West  Point  was  regarded  by  the 
public  as  a  "college”  in  itself,  though  the 
requirements  for  admission  were  so  simple 
that  a  boy  who  had  a  grammar  school  di¬ 
ploma  might  hope  to  pass  its  portals.  A 
cadet  who  had  an  A.  B.  diploma  in  his 
pocket  was  exceedingly  rare,  an  object  of 
curiosity  to  his  classmates.  At  West  Pdint 
Howard  took  and  held  high  rank,  graduat¬ 
ing  far  up  towards  the  head  of  his  class, 
and  being  assigned  to  the  ordnance  corps, 
an  assignment  that  still  is  a  certificate  of 
illiant  academic'  merit.  Subsequently 
award’s  connection  with  West  Point 
nged  from  a  professionship  to  the  super¬ 
tendency.  . ,  ■  • 

As  a  general  Howard  was  for  a  long  time 
contraverted  value.  At  Chancellorsville 
s  corps  felt  the  full  brunt  of  Stonewall 


Jackson’s*  flank  attack,  it  gave  way  in 
panic  despite  the  utmost  exertions  of  its 
commander  and  his  lieutenants.  Whether 
Howard  should  have  foreseen  the  direction 
and  purpose  of  a  Confederate  movement  , 
known  to  be  going  on  was  a  point  on  which 
much  ink  was  shed  at  the  time,  and  pub¬ 
lic  opinion  was  eager  to  make  him  a  scape-  , 
goat.  As  he  was  known  to  be  a  man  of 
prayer,  an  absurd  story  which  originated 
in  the  army  that  his  corps  was  engaged 
in  a  prayer  meeting  when  Stonewall  Jack- 
son  struck  it  travelled  northward,  was  at 
once  picked  up  and  seriously  believed  by 
many.  General  Howard’s  •corps  included 
a  strong  German  contingent,  and  as  these 
men  were  swept  off  their  feefe  by  Jack¬ 
son’s  fierce  onset  and  broke  in  panic  flight, 
their  misconduct  gave  the  Teutonic  mili¬ 
tary  character  a  bad  name  with  the  army 
which  it  most  assuredly  did  not  deserve 
Howard  remained  under  a  cloud  with  the 
public.  The  accounts  of  the  flight  of  the 
corps  sent  home  from  the  front,  which  are 
still  retold  occasionally  by  veterans,  in¬ 
fected  the  North  with  a  prejudice  against 
his  capacity,  which  his .  desperate  losing 
struggle  in  the  early  phase  of  Gettysburg, 
where  he  could  but  fight  a  rear-gua’d  ac- 
'  tion  at  the  best,  may  have  intensified. 
But  he  didn’t  lose  the  confidence  of  the 
Government  nor  of  generals  who  were  able 
to  draw  distinctions  based  on  conditions. 

When  he  was  sent  to  the  "West.”  as  all 

■  sections  save  the  region  of  the  Army  of 
the  Potomac’s  operations  were  then  called, 
Howard  was  held  by  many  observers  to 
have  been  exiled.  There,  however,  he  was 
destined  to  prove  his  worth.  Originally  a 
corps  commander  there,  but  not  of  the 
Eleventh,  which  had  been  consolidated  with 
another,  General  Sherman  promoted  him 

■  to  the  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Tennes¬ 
see  on  McPherson’s  death.  General  Sher¬ 
man  in  his  memoirs  gives  his  reasons  for 
his  preference  of  Howard  over  Logan  or 
Blair,  and  these,  coming  from  a  master  of 
the  art  of  war,  constitute  a  certificate  of 
merit  that  should  place  Howard’s  capabil¬ 
ity  in  its  true  light  as  a  trustworthy  lieu¬ 


tenant.  Says  Sherman: 

I  wanted  to  succeed  in  taking  Atlanta, 
and  needed  commanders  who  were  purely 
and  technically  soldiers,  men  who  would 
obey  orders  and  execute  them  promptly 
and  on  time;  for  I  knew  that  we  would 
have  to  execute  some  most  delicate  manceu- 
reauiring  the  utmost  skill,  nicety  and 
nrpriaion.  i  believed  that  General  How¬ 
ard  would  do  all  these  faithfully  and  well, 
and  I  think  the  result  has  justified  my 
nUoica  I  regarded  both  Generals  Logan 
and  Blair  as  "volunteers.”  that  looked  to 
personal  fame  and  glory  as  auxiliary  and 
secondary  to  their  political  ambition,  and 


With  Sherman’s  indorsement  Howard's 
large  historic  record  may  be  safely  allowed 
to  rest.  Howard  was  not  one  of  the  great 
generals;  be  stands  with  Sedgwick  and 
other  efficient  officers  who  were  good  lieu¬ 
tenants.  He  was  fey  no  means  the  only  brave 
officer  who  had  seen  his  soldiers  run  away 
from  him.  and  better  material  than  he  had 
under  his  orders  at  Chancellorsville  have 


yielded  to  blows  struck  by  men  of  the 
Stonewall  Jackson  stamp.  The  making  oil 
history  is  a  series  of  revisions  of  judgment, 
and.  long  before  he  died  General  Howard 
had  received  the  benefit  of  this  process. 


E.  W.  H. 


I 


AN  INCIDENT 


OF  GENERAL 


.1,  •'  '  *■  mj. 

HOWARD 


i  When  General  Howard  was  in  New  York 
I  on  Lincoln  Day,  Feb.  12,  at  the  great  meet¬ 
ing  at  the  Metropolitan  Opera  House,  of  the 
founders  of  the  Lincoln  Memorial  Univer¬ 
sity,  there  was  a  curiously  memorable  scene 
between  the  hero  of  Gettysburg  and  Gen¬ 
eral  Sickles, 

General  Howard  had  made  his  strong  and 
eloquent  speech  for  the  cause  which  held 
his  affections  and  his  energies  to  the  last. 
Soldiers,  civilians,  prelates  of  the  church, 
and  the  historian  of  Lincoln,  Ida  M.  Tar- 
bell,  had  spoken  to  the  great  meeting  in  the 
flag-draped  opera  house.  Then  General 
Sickles  told  an  intimate  incident  of  the  lit- 
tle-talked-of  but  mightily  prevailing  faith 
of  Abraham  Lincoln  during  the  crisis  of  our 
country’s  birth  into  national  unity.  He 

I  found  the  President  one  day  alone  in  a 
room  which  he  entered  at  the  White  House, 
supposing  it  to  be  empty,  down  on  his  knees 
praying  aloud  for  6treAgth  to  carry  the  bur¬ 
den  of  his  duty.  He  went  out  softly,  un¬ 
heard,  and  closed  the  door. 

General  Howard  rose  and  came  forward 
in  such  a  glow  of  soul  that  many  felt  at 
that  moment  a  communicated  certainty  of 
immortality.  His  empty  sleeve  seemed  but 
a  symbol  of  the  holiness  of  immortal  man. 
In  a  few  inimitable  words  he  recalled  a 
Scene,  also  described  by  others,  at  the  close 
of  the  Cabinet  meeting  during  those  weld- 
dhg,  fusing  days  of  struggle,  a  famous  sec- 
;  rotary  had  felt  called  to  express  his  faith  In 
ultimate  victory,  if  those  in  charge  of  gov¬ 
ernment  follo-wed  the  right. 

“My  faith  is  stronger  than  yours,  gentle¬ 
men,’’  said  Lincoln.  “I  am  sure  that  the 
Almighty  will  make  us  do  right/* 

'•/  ‘  M.'  C.  8. 


t 


Boston,  Oct.  27. 


